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Current year's babbling:
I began this New Year with Don McLean's song "American Pie" stuck in my head and it's been 'playing' in my brain ever since. I am amazed at how a human remember lyrics like that. I do remember all those lyrics! It shocks me that I can remember them when I get forget so many other things. (I am convinced that if you put anything to catchy music that we'd all remember EVERYTHING we were ever taught.) Yesterday on the way home from the store I finally heard that song on the radio. (All these years I just assumed it was the type of song you'd play as a D.J. on a radio station when you had to go to the bathroom, since it ran so long...) After hearing it on the radio and singing my heart out, the song has finally left my head. My daughter and her boyfriend spent New Year's Eve with us. We watched 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' movies until 11:30 p.m. then watched the ball drop in Times Square, exchanged hugs and kisses, and then my husband and I went to bed and left the kids up playing Monopoly. I could hear bursts of their conversations while drifting off to sleep, most of it quite humorous, and fell asleep chuckling to myself. My husband said he got up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and they were still out here playing so he suggested they break it up and head to bed and/or go home. (After all, there are only so many times you can not go past go and not collect 200 dollars on the way to jail...) January 8, 2009 - My friend Kathy and I started our New Year with a renewed commitment to treating ourselves better... in a healthy kind of way. We originally decided to get back to losing weight until it dawned on us that losing weight isn't all of the big picture - sure, we'd like to look all sexy and stuff and be our own local town's Mae West type but what good is that if you feel like dog doo? It doesn't matter if you look like Twiggy or Jabba the Hut - as long as you are a healthy Jabba - now that is something. (Of course, being 'healthy' means eating better and eating better will lead to fluffy fat weight loss, so it's a perk nonetheless!) Kathy and I decided to start our 'new beginning' on January 5th as one cannot realistically say 'JANUARY 1st!" when you know perfectly well you are all going to a party or a Chinese place that has food that needs consuming. Knowing we were going to start this new adventure, I went completely crazy nuts in food consumption over the two week holiday period. Even though I didn't bake a lot or cook an over abundance of big meals during the Christmas and New Year weeks, I did eat every thing I could see in the greater tri-state area that wasn't already in someone else's belly. I would wake up with food hangovers often - as real as any drinking binge would have created. Monday was the 'beginning' and I have to confess it was like a mini-version of what I think a junkie must go through in rehab... I had actual withdrawals. My poor body! After stuffing all of that junk into myself for two weeks, Monday was the worst day EVER. I ate as a good girl human should with veggies and fruit and proper meals and plenty of water, etc. but by the time I got home from work, I was shaking and dizzy. (Of course, we had a stressful day at work due to a wave of lay-offs and such, but come on...) Tuesday was a bit better, my body was over the shock of the loss of inbound mass amounts of bread and sugar products. However, by Wednesday I had GAINED TWO POUNDS. This seems odd when I've been ever so good. I reason that I am full of 'crap' literally and should schedule a high colonic or a visit from Roto Rooter, or perhaps I have just been very very bad to my physical self and my body is confused and dazed at this point. At this point I have not called Roto Rooter and am taking a wait and see approach. (Mind you, coffee tends to 'move' me just fine, but a two pound gain has to result from residual bowel build up, wouldn't you think?) Last night I tried to help my son with Chemistry homework. Ugh. (First of all, let me note that he's come a long way since the "F" grade he had after a couple of weeks of school. After that little experience of losing his laptop for a week, etc - he has carried a high B every since. The mere fact he asks for help now warms my heart but rips the last three remaining brains cells from my head...) Ugh. Molarity? What the heck is molairty? I barely lived through Mols in general with my son, now you have to figure the pH and pOH of stuff too? I had an urge to call my friend Diane's husband, Jeff, as he's a Chemist and would know - but he's in Indiana and it was late. I also have other friends in other states who are Chemist types, but then it occurred to me WHY these people live in other states - to avoid phone calls from people like me for chemistry homework help. When my daughter called to tell me about her day during the homework session with my son, I was quite rude and passed her off to her brother to see if she could help him. (She had this class in High School only a few years ago and aced it - I was hoping she had retained some of the information in her head.) Alas, the attempt was futile. She did help him a little more than I did, but he was still baffled. He finally commiserated with fellow Chem students and found they were as confused as he was and it was collectively decided they will go in today as a united front and demand knowledge. And in closing, for those of you who don't know how to figure out the pH of something, as I still don't nor will I ever understand it apparently, here are the steps: (I include this explanation in case you are ever held at gun point and the only way the gunman will let you live is to calculate the pH of something...) pH is measured on a logarithmic scale. It is used to tell how concentrated a solution is based on hydrogen ions. Definition: pH = -log[H+] This says that pH equals the negative log of the concentration of an acid (H+). For example: Say we have a solution of 0.02M hydrochloric acid and we want to know the pH. pH = -log[H+] = -log[0.02] = 1.7. This is very acidic because it is close to zero. The pH scale looks similar to this: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 [0 - 6 is acidic 7 is neutral 8 - 14 is basic or alkaline.] If you're given the pH and not the concentration then: If your pH = 2.3 then, 2.3 = -log[H+] [H+] = 10^-pH = 10^-2.3 = [5.0 x 10^-3M]If your given the pH and not the concentration then: If your pH = 2.3 then, 2.3 = -log[H+] [H+] = 10^-pH = 10^-2.3 = [5.0 x 10^-3M] *Yes, Aunt Trudy - I copied and pasted this because, really, I have NO CLUE nor do I UNDERSTAND THIS in the least bit nor do I ever intend on understanding it if it can be avoided at all :) Clear as mud, right? Ugh. After homework sessions like that I feel as if the only thing I'm capable of is running around the living room beating on my chest and flailing my arms while making ape noises as I use a stick to eat termites. January 12, 2009 - First of all, I will write about my Aunt Sue. Suzanne (Kauffman) (Glenn) Foschi died on January 8th. She lived in a town down south of us. I will quote what I wrote about her in 2001 first: "My brother found our Aunt Sue, who we have not seen since 1979. She was married to my Uncle Cloyce. After Cloyce died in '82 or so, the family lost touch with her. Just because you lose touch with a person doesn't mean you stop thinking of them. It was good to hear her voice on the phone! Aunt Sue and Uncle Cloyce were married on the day I was born. Aunt Sue's birthday is also the same month as mine. Aunt Sue took my brother and I to Cedar Point when I was in my early teens. First time I rode a roller coaster - The Blue Streak - and the picnic we had there at the park was the first time I found out people actually drink sugar in their iced tea! Hahaha. They told me there was iced tea, so I got a glass. "This isn't ice tea!" I proclaimed! (Mind you - I lived a sheltered life.) Finding out some people drink their tea with stuff in it amazed me. I also spent a week here and there with them at their home. Uncle Cloyce let me mow the lawn with the riding lawn mower! Woo Hoo. Aunt Sue took me to see the movie "Anne of a Thousand Days" at the movie theater. We get to see Aunt Sue in August. I am looking forward to it with a happy heart!!" We did get to see her at a picnic and catch up in 2001. I got to tell her exactly how she influenced my life. It was marvelous. She had not changed a bit, still the bubbly personality from my youth and a mind as sharp as a whip. I am mad that I didn't check the Coldwater obituaries soon enough to get to her funeral. Sigh. Normally I check obituaries every day!! She only had a short obituary in the paper, and I was sad. She deserved a big old obituary. Later in the day when I was talking to my daughter, I told her I wanted more than a paragraph in a newspaper like Aunt Sue got. I told her all about Aunt Sue again (I'm sure she's heard the stories more than once) and about the adventures I had with her and Uncle Cloyce when I was young. My daughter said not to worry about a paragraph in the paper - they would give me a send off I would never forget, considering I wouldn't be around to know about it in the first place. Bye Aunt Sue - thanks for treating me like a little human and not a kid when I was young, and thank you for letting me stay with you guys and giving me confidence in myself during crucial development years. We are due for an arctic blast tonight here in Southwest Lower Michigan. Batten down yer hatches! Being a close neighbor of Canada as Michigan is, I'm surprised we didn't get blasted sooner, aye? I believe now is the time to turn on your water pipe's heat tape if you have 'em, aye? (Aside from my feeble attempt at Canadian stereotypical 'aying', Vickie - do you remember the days of frozen water pipes - ah, memories that sucked in a way but as time goes by, not so much because we were together and we survived!) I am trying to 'herd' my fellow High School classmates from High School together on Facebook. It would be free alternative for a reunion site as opposed to Classmates dot com who charge an arm and a leg, and then once you join it's mostly all advertisements. Sigh. Facebook is free - you can upload pictures, etc. Wish me luck. I will have to make up postcard type things to hand out when I see local classmates - and I sent a mass email to my out of state classmates that I know about. I waited way too long to start planning the 30th for this year. I can see we might end up having a 31st reunion instead due to my laziness! (Never get tipsy at your 20th reunion and volunteer for ANYTHING!!) Hahahaha. If you are a former classmate of mine reading this, please go get a Facebook account and look for me! (Don't do it at work, however, as I'm in IT myself, and frankly - getting on Facebook at work and or school is a big NO NO from an IT police perspective...and we'd hunt you down and take your first born or puppy and drag your body through the streets behind a horse drawn wagon while people threw stones at you...) Oh, and an update on my NEW BEGINNING with food and life this year - I have lost ONLY A POUND so far. ONLY A POUND. Oy Vay. But at least I feel better. Truly - I feel so much better than stuffing myself full of junk. **If you are a younger person reading this - DON'T GET FAT AT A YOUNG AGE THINKING YOU'LL LOSE IT WHEN YOU ARE OLDER. Losing body fat when you are older becomes a challenge as body/belly fat tends to move in and takes over and through some legal loop hole DOES NOT LEAVE when you want it to and as we all know, body fat in the first place is a big evil entity that lives in you and on you and controls your thoughts and is planning on taking over the world as soon as all the body fat can coordinate a time and date and place to meet and congeal together... January 14, 2009 - I cried a lot today. Once I started I couldn't stop. It all started at a get together at work. We were celebrating Rod's 30th year at work. I have worked with Rod since 1979. Rod has been like a family member to me. I adore Rod for being Rod. We don't always see eye to eye - but that is a good friendship - you can agree to disagree. When Rod started talking about the old times, of course I had to throw in my two cents since I was part of those old times, and Wyatt was there too - he was part of those old times - it suddenly hit me hard and out of the blue - BAM - an epiphany of sorts... I have been struggling for some time to comprehend the passage of my life. I think I've blogged about it several times. Life/Time goes by so fast that it's sometimes hard to sort it all out in a human head. (At least in my human head.) However, when I was listening to Rod talk and looking at him and then looking at Wyatt sitting there and remembering some of the events Rod was discussing, my brain surged and I swear the whole room could hear it make a loud 'CLICK' sound and right there in front of my eyes I zipped backwards in time. I could recall events I had forgotten (or chose to forget.) I backed up all the way through my life to the point where I met Rod in the first place in June of 1979. I could recall so many emotions, facial expressions, words, conversations, etc. It happened so fast in my brain - my poor dear brain - all of that fast outpouring of memories... That flood of memories caused me to break out crying because it was the only way my brain could react to such a burst of whatever it was that happened to me. I felt like George Bailey in 'It's a Wonderful Life' where he's on the bridge screaming, "Clarence, I want to live again!" I was so overcome with so many emotions at that second, I could only weep. I had to get up and leave the room. I barely got back to my office before I started to outright sob. (Please note that everyone at work knows I've very "full of life" and am prone to passionate outbursts of tears and hugs and such - so this was not uncommon for me and no one thought it odd that I left crying...) However, it was WEIRD to ME - and I sobbed and sobbed. I could honestly say I felt my brain shift a level up or sideways. It hurt yet it didn't. It felt good but I was scared. (Now that I look back, it was a very awesome moment of revelation to me and NO, I don't need to go to the State Hospital and check myself in!) As I discussed with Jane later, being a girl and all - once you get a good sob on, you tend to cry about everything else as well. (If you are a male reading this, this honestly does happen to females on occasion. A female can begin to cry about one thing and end up sucking the air out of a room and collapsing it's ceiling by sobbing about everything else.) So I sat at my desk and enjoyed the cry and got it out of my system. I have not had a decent 'girly' type break down kick butt cry in years. Very cleansing to the soul. However, now I'm all used up and going to bed. Hopefully I will sleep like a baby. I'm way too old for any more epiphanies like that tonight and as a matter of fact I think I'm good on revelations for a month or so... January 20, 2009 - Temperature (wind chill) this morning is 15 below zero. Very brisk. I post this for Vickie and Reva who no doubt MISS temps like this by living in the Southern regions of the country. Don't you guys miss the crunch of the snow when it's this cold? Don't you miss the snow in general? Don't you miss how the top layers of your tongue's skin peel off when you lick a metal pole? Ah, winter! Last night I was sitting in my Lazy Boy chair with crumbs of low fat Oreos on my face (which, by the way, I have no CLUE as to how those crumbs got there, and my teeth were blackened with Oreo shrapnel that caused my front teeth to appear nonexistant from a distance if someone had happened to look at me at the time, but I digress...) and I began to ponder to myself about the fact that I had to get my amorphous hind end up and go walk on the treadmill. There was no reason why I couldn't. (I decided this mainly because I had to find a way to handle the stress of exam week. We all know how much I enjoy studying for Chemistry with the wee one. Last night, I barely made it through review of his art class for that exam let alone Chemistry which rips out my brain and bounces it off the living room walls like so much silly putty...) Plus, this is the year to take care of ME, so I got up and found my walking shoes and went to face the machine. The machine doesn't like me. Several months ago I gave up on The Beast because every time I would try to walk, it would abruptly stop after a quarter of a mile. Just stop. I realize now that after it would grind to a halt, I would give up immediately - not even TRY to continue on - and leave it in a huff, flipping my hair at it. (That is what the Evil Fat wanted me to do, I'm sure.) I could have just started The Beast up again and walked another quarter of a mile, but I wouldn't. However, last night I finally decided if my Aunt Trudy can work out and my cousin Dave can work out and my "get healthier" buddy Kathy can, then I could. I faced The Beast with NO FEAR and started walking. (Now mind you, my daughter can come over and use The Beast and run for miles on it without it stopping on her and throwing her into the wall, so I know it's fully functional, and I also know that I am not so heavy that my sheer weight should cause the thing to quit and the belt to congeal - so I took an attitude of GO AHEAD AND MAKE MY DAY, YOU STUPID TREADMILL...) I made it past the quarter mile mark and The Beast was still working. I increased the speed and headed to the half mile mark. It was nice that I could do this without bothering anyone. The Beast is in the bedroom and normally in the evening my husband is sleeping in there, but he's laid off, so no one to wake up! However, there is no radio in there and the T.V. on the treadmill isn't hooked up to the cable, so all I had to entertain myself was the heavy breathing and conversations in my head. Being the cheap date that I am, I'm easily amused by myself so talking to myself in my own head can be fun at times, if not a sign of some one in dire need of clinical treatment ... "Why are you walking - you don't need to walk!" (Evil Fat speaking...) I walk because I want to be healthier and live a week longer, OK? So shut up and accept it! (That would be me...) "You're just gonna die anyway, so why bother?" So I'm gonna die some day, so what! At least I'll be able to walk to the door and let hospice in! "You never follow through on anything, do you? Just stop now and go look up intersting trivia on the internet..." Oh, I'll look up trivia - like how to get rid of EVIL VISCERAL FAT! The Beast decided to stop on me at the speed at 3.5 miles an hour and when I was in a healthy pant mode. I stopped myself from flinging forward and put my feet on the side rails and looked at The Beast and said, "Not this time, you *#$*^#^* piece of @*%^*@*%!!" I restarted it and started walking again. I called my husband in so he could watch to see if he could see what was wrong. He sat on the bed and watched me walk and sure enough, The Beast stopped again. My husband said, "Maybe if you use a programmed walk routine, it wouldn't do that - something with more incline and stuff..." So I chose the first program on it and started again. It started out nice enough, but increased in angle and speed. OK, this was making me sweat - that is good - but it kept increasing speed and incline and halfway through the little routine when I was practically parallel to the floor, I gave up. "Gotta work my way up for that...pant pant...can't do it right off the bat...pant pant..." All in all I walked 1.5 miles total, some on a flat surface and some facing the ceiling, but I walked and sweated and panted a lot. One step at a time... January 22, 2009 - I have kept my treadmill walking up, and my legs love me. Seriously, they feel so much better. I don't snap and pop so loud in the morning when I roll out of bed. Viva moving. Last night after we all headed to bed and the house was quiet, the two older cats decided it was wrestlemania time and you could hear them fighting in the living room. Stewart the Young One was not involved, as he was in bed with me, but he seemed interested in what was going on in the living room. The cats have to play when the dogs are sleeping and/or upstairs or they are 'arrested' as it were by the Cat Police Dogs. Last night was no exception; After several minutes of knock down drag out fur flyin' cat fun, Kia and Jake could be heard on high alert, barking and heading down the stairs like a herd of buffalo. I chuckled. The cats scattered. All was quiet again. Ten minutes later, the older cats started up again. This time, they were in the bedroom with us, fighting loudly. Kia and Jake took less to respond this time, flying down the stairs as they barked...and this made my husband and I burst out in laughter. You had to be here, but it was very funny. Keystone Dog Cops. Jake took it upon himself to police the whole house for several minutes to assure himself this was NOT going to happen again, and I fell asleep giggling to myself, because all I could picture was Jake as the dog version of Barney Fife. The Wee One pulled off a final grade of 'B' in his Chem class! I was so excited about this fact. All those hours of studying paid off, even though I will be in therapy for years to come from the shock of it all. Monday starts a new semester with new classes. (He will be in Physics this time and I can foresee a whole new semester of fun for all.) My husband has been doing lots of fix up projects whilst he's been laid off, which doesn't hurt my feelings at all. I now have shelves under the stairwell, an internally clean dryer, and chairs that needed fixing are fixed. As long as it doesn't involve money, he's doing it. January 25, 2009 - It's zero degrees currently (but apparently feels like -13, according to the Weather Channel) and the sky is clear as a bell. Many stars above to gaze and wonder about. It's 4:30 a.m. I couldn't sleep any longer, so why fight it - I got up. I let the doggies out to do their business and they announced to the whole neighborhood that they were awake. I'm sure the neighbors appreciate that early morning wake up bark. I had my yearly mammogram on Friday afternoon. It was by far the fastest and most efficient boob smashing I've had to date. I was in and out in record time. At the front desk they offered (for a mere five dollars) a pad you can use to help cushion the smashing part. I declined. Not that I'm cheap, but mammograms do not bother me. I figure that after all the kids as babies used 'the girls' as trampolines and the years I ran a press in a factory they were shut in more than one door, that most of my nerve endings are dead anyway in that area and a mammogram is really no big whoop at this point. Every year they ask, "Is there a history of breast cancer in your family?" and every year I respond, "I think breast cancer is the ONLY cancer we have not had in my family that I can recollect..." I hope that response stays the same for a long time to come. (There has been colon cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, bladder cancer, skin cancer, and probably a bunch more I can't recall right now, and Lord only knows what is brewing and stewing inside of me at the present, but I don't remember anyone every having breast cancer...) My friend Kathy had to go for her colonoscopy last week, and that reminds me that I have to get my butt in to my doctor and request one myself here soon - I've never had one - but it's time. Out of all the cancers that repeat in my family tree, colon is the biggest cancer on the hit parade. I am going to ask, if they are up there anyway, can they keep going up and pull Stella the hernia back inside to whence she came. Smile. Besides, the get you all loopy on drugs and it's like a mini-vacation. I hope I'm awake enough to watch, however, because it's would be interesting. I would have loved to sit in on my husband's the times he went, but they send home pictures anyway for the family album, so I guess I didn't miss anything. "What's that, Grandma?" "Oh, that is your Grandpa's colon! It used to be quite dashing in its day..." It would be easier on everyone if we were just born with "security" cameras mounted to monitor every major organ in our bodies, wouldn't it? The fish know that when I get up in the morning that normally it's time to eat. When I get up early like this, though, I don't feed them until their normal time. All four fish are in the corner of the tank staring at me. Roderick and Matthew, the two large goldfish, will make mad dashes to the top of the tank and dive back down to the corner, as if to show me that I'm failing miserably as a provider. (And they say fish have only a three second memory - I have never believed that. ) I had the weirdest dream when I took a long nap yesterday (...hmmm, suddenly it's clear to me why I couldn't sleep past 4:30 a.m. this morning...) It was a serious dream for the most part, about nuclear war and such - I forgot most of it except the last few minutes where I have the people who would listen to me in a garage, warning them that the strike would happen at midnight but they didn't believe me and they all said they would leave the safety of the garage if there were no bombs set off by midnight, etc. (Come on, how safe is an old garage in the first place? It is as safe as the 'duck and hide' technique they taught kids in school during the Sputnik era...) Anyway, sure enough to my word, and why it happened in the first place I cannot remember, there were strikes everywhere and mushroom clouds on the horizon. There was even a blast that sent a fire ball over the garage, but amazingly none of us were fried alive. (I did tell everyone we'd all be dead soon anyway from the radiation, so wasn't I miss Mary Sunshine?) The suddenly it's daylight and I kept telling them it wasn't over, and sure enough, here comes this huge bomb directly at the garage, but it stops mid air as if it were looking for someone. I step out of the garage and it comes looking for me...I step back in the garage and the bomb floats up to the windows looking for me. (I did this for a while in the dream until I realized it must be some sort of Sandy heat seeking missile and stopped and hid in the door frame.) So, out of nowhere when the bomb couldn't find me, it takes a nose dive into a bean bag chair that was outside of the garage and doesn't go off - just plows into the bean bag chair and sits there. We all leave the garage now, and where the bomb was suddenly there is a anime version of ME popping out of the bean bag chair with a smile on my anime face, and I turn to my husband and say, "What the hell is that all about?" That is when I woke up and shook my head at the stupidity of the whole thing, meandered out into the living room and told my husband the parts I could remember. "You have serious issues, woman..." he commented. "No, I just have very weird dreams!"
I keep an old plastic chair out in the dog pen. I use it when I haul out my telescope to that part of the yard. The chair collects drips from the house that will re-freezes in the seat part of the chair. The dogs have learned how to get the chunk of ice out of the chair and they have spent many hours this winter playing 'ice hockey' with their chair ice puck or just eating the chair ice in general. They also get very possessive about their chair ice and will haul it in on occasion when I'm not paying attention. I find much humor in the dog's ice fetish and think to myself that the best 'stuff' in life is the little things - such as chair ice blobs. So far, second semester for the wee one is going well. He is now on a kick to take some money he's saved and paint his room and get new carpet. (We live in a very very old house that could use all the paint and carpet it can get.) He wants designs on his walls, and has asked questions about how to achieve his various goals. He comes to me for the design part. I have an artistic flair, but I fear I cannot come up with anything near what he has in his head. His father is taking him to Mernards this morning to pick out paint and such. I miss the days when a simple Spongebob stick up wall picture was high class decor for him. February 11, 2009 -
Well, the wee one is almost done with his room. His Dad is taking him to get carpet
tomorrow, I have been too down and out and just 'blah' to even post on line lately. Sigh. With the economy and slow work and worrying about the kids surviving and America surviving and all... well, it's just a sad time for all of us. My husband was told today that he will be laid off 'forever' as they are not calling anyone back and they thanked him for his work, etc., but the fact remains that here he is again having to start all over. At least he's not so alone this time since EVERYONE in the whole world is out of work and looking, so there will be more people to meet and talk to while waiting in line for soup... I know my parents lived and survived during the 'Great Depression'...my Mom was born in 1922 and my Dad was born in 1913. They told many stories of the Depression and their bad times and problems. Are we all destined to go back to growing our own gardens and canning and killing our own squirrels to eat? Do I invest in chickens now so I can trade their eggs later for the neighbor's milk? Should I re-read the 'Little House on the Prairie' series so I am prepared for what the future holds? Must give us pause... I know we can survive this as a country, as families, and as humans. This is all human induced bad times so we humans will have to fix it, won't we? But it's the waiting and the time during the 'fixing' - that is the hard part in our human minds. Worry about things such as "How will we pay bills?" and "How will we afford housing and food?" drags on us. I know people have been asking things like this since humans learned to talk. I think people like me forget other people suffer and go without all the time. This is nothing new for a lot of people, just new to some people... I fear many people will go from deducting for donations to charities on their taxes to standing in lines at those very charities. The more I think things through the more overwhelmed my little mind gets. It sort of freezes you in place in your own mind when you over think things. It doesn't help that I've been having such vivid nightmares as of late. I am not sure if it's due to the 'over thinking' and stress, or because I got my medicines refilled and went with generic to save money. Oy vay. The dreams have been just dreadful and detailed. (I always have animated, vivid dreams - my mind is a hotbed for extravagant dreams, but not on such a level of death and destruction!) Sigh. I will have to just snap out of it and be strong now, won't I? I can't be down if my husband is down. I am just sometimes tired of being the 'up' one and the one that fixes things or smoothes over the bad times. I don't want to be the fluffy frosting on life anymore... I want to be the cake. Not that this has anything to do with my over all 'blah' state, but tonight I stopped at a red light and I TURNED MY CAR OFF because I wanted to enter my recent purchase into my check book!!! WHERE WAS MY MIND AT?!! Fortunately for me, I live in a very small town and no one was waiting behind me so I was able to put the car in park and start it back up and drive on once I realized what I had just done. I don't think it's related to early dementia (although that does seem to run rampant in my inherited genetics) as much as just my state of mind in general for the last few weeks. Duh. February 12, 2009 - I slept 'real' sleep last night for the first time in forever. No dreadful dreams. Apparently blabbing to a journal helps? (Or it works for me, we all have different ways of dealing with life.) Or maybe it was because I sat up and watched the History Channel documentary on the Mayan Long Count calendar, and just knowing the world is going to end soon creates a feeling of "why worry" because all of the problems today don't mean anything in the big picture. Who knows why I slept well. I am just content with the fact I did sleep well. I know it bugs me that since my husband has been home (although he's been a big help and doing so much around the house) the fact remains that he's always HERE. The T.V. is always on. In the morning he switches between Bob and Tom (the radio show) to the T.V. morning news (so I've heard TONS more news than I'm used to hearing) and it's never quiet here anymore. No quiet time. No morning quiet time for Sandy. Maybe that's what is wrong with me. I suppose that I miss the morning or evenings to collect my thoughts in silence after the wee one went to bed and husband went to work. I could just get myself a pair of ear phones that block sound from the outside world or let my hearing degenerate naturally (which it is doing and I also have genetics to thank for that) to achieve the 'quiet' I miss, yes? February 17, 2009 - Houston, we have QUIET! Contented sigh. My husband is back to work. Well, sort of. They called him last week to mention that he'd not be coming back EVER (which plunged him in to a pit of despair) then called him on Friday to say they really didn't want to lose him and asked if he would drive the company truck. WOOT. No one can turn down a job nowadays, so he said yes and now he's a truck drivin' fool. He's never driven a bigger truck so he was out of one pit of despair into another - but this truck is not so big that he needs a CDL license and I'm sure he'll figure it all out as he goes. So far no one has gotten hurt or run over, so he has that going for him. I know he was worried about it - but IT'S A JOB. Monday my son went to early jazz and husband went to work and I was A-L-O-N-E. I literally DANCED in the living room and screamed with joy. (This got the dogs all riled up and they chased each other then chased the cats upstairs and all hell broke loose.) I finally got the dogs calmed down and put outside, then I just did stuff around the house and it felt so GOOD. It's the little things... On the way to work the other day, I was about to cross over a bridge down the road that runs over a creek, and just as I came up on that bridge, three rather large swans came bursting through from under the bottom rail as if the guard rail was giving birth to them. (Mind you, they could have walked AROUND the railing from the creek, another five feet or so, but they just pushed themselves through this small space with gusto.) Plop, there they were in the way in the middle of the road, looking around as if to say, "Yeah, we MEANT to do that - what are you staring at??" They had the look and attitude of a young Elvis in a leather jacket and curled lip. Traffic was backed up a few cars deep on both sides as we all had to take turns going around them because they weren't moving. I still can't figure out why they would push themselves under that guard rail instead of walking around it. Foul...go figure. February 22, 2009 - We had at least six inches of snow fall in the last 24 hours. The landscape surrounding my house was a pristine blanket of white. (This has since changed a bit as the local collection of animals have been out on morning maneuvers. This blanket of white is quite blinding at the moment because the sun is out in all its glory today. I went out with the dogs just now and all I could see was glaring white and a million eye floaties. Since I figured this was not healthy for my retinas, I decided to come back into the dark cave. As I type my husband is going out to snowblow the driveway. I told him he would need sunglasses. He proclaimed that he "didn't need no stinkin' sunglasses" and I responded that it's his decision not to wear any but when he's sun blind I am going to take him far away from here and just drop him off. My daughter is home for the weekend. She's sick and I begged her to come home so we could heal her. (Of course we can't heal her, we can only offer pampering, orange juice, and love with lots of pets to suck the poison out of her psyche.) She leaves in a week to go to Florida with her boyfriend and his Mom, and I didn't want her sick the whole time. Many of us can attest to the fact that flying with a head cold is NOT fun nor would we recommend it to our friends and family members. My oldest son is coming over today. He has been M.I.A. for quite a while as he has a girlfriend now. His girlfriend is not feeling well, however, so he's coming over to see his sister and brother. (He is on the phone right now with my youngest. You should hear them giggling. His sister is happy and the wee one is happy. They miss their big bro in the worst way. They are quite excited he is coming over. The mood in the house is almost giddy.) I just went out to clean off the cars so we could move them after a spot is blown out to where they can be moved. Wow, that was a lot of snow. (We don't need no stinkin' garage! We ain't so fancy to need a separate building for our vehicles ... we'd rather spend hours digging them out of a snow bank - geez!) February 23, 2009 - It was nice having all the kids home, I must admit. They all get along so well and I love to listen to them talk and interact. My daughter's nose continued to run and run yesterday so I scoured through my collection of over the counter cold meds to see if there was something to help her snot factor. I had Nyquil (for night time use) and Nyquil gel pills (for night time use) and various other things (for night time use) and finally found a box of Tylenol Cold and Sinus. I gave her two pills. I went to lie down and take a nap after that, giving the siblings time to themselves and all. (I just wanted an excuse to take a nap, ok?) When I woke up my daughter was soundly asleep on the couch with books spread out all over the place where she had been working on homework. I stared at her for a bit and asked my husband how long she'd been sleeping. "'Bout an hour..." he said. We did things around the house and watched some T.V. and she was still sound asleep. "Man, she needed to sleep!" my husband said. "No doubt!" I responded. By six p.m. we were starting to get worried as she was still soundly sleeping. "What did you give her for her cold?" my husband ventured to ask. "I gave her Tylenol Cold and Sinus! The only thing in the house that wasn't 'night time' stuff!" I defended myself. "What was the dosage supposed to be?" he asked. I went and got the box. I gave her the correct amount of pills and read for side effects, etc. As I was getting ready to show my husband the box to prove that I was innocent, I notice in little letters on the front of the box "For Night Time Comfort" and I just laughed. "I think I killed her!" I snorted. I had given her a night time help-you-sleep drug during the day. Duh. She had wanted to leave to go back home around five p.m. so she could work on homework, but there she was - snoring on the couch. Her brothers came downstairs and sat on her plus the dogs helped by licking her face a lot and she finally rolled off the couch looking as if she was hit by a train. I confessed what I had done to her. "Mom, you ruffee'd me!" she drawled which made us all laugh. I countered that she really needed the sleep to get better anyway, so maybe it was a good thing. The kids expressed their happiness that I didn't work behind the counter at a pharmacy. "What's the matter woman, can't you read?" my husband chimed in. I guess the moral to this story is, if you are going to drug your kids, don't hang around the house afterwards for the verbal insults. February 24, 2009 - Yjod od ,r yu[omh pmr lru yp yjr tohjy pg jp,r tpe/ That spaz spew above says, "This is me typing one key to they right of home row." I find it funny, and I did it only because the little indents and/or bumps that help guide to the starting keys (on the 'F' and 'J' keys) are worn away. Sometimes I sit down and start typing like a bat outta hell and end up being one key off of home row. I am a fast typist and for the most part I'm fairly error free (that statement does NOT include my horribly maiming of all things related to or appearing as grammar) but I subconsciously have to have that starting point; I have to have the 'F' and 'J' defined. Everyone needs a starting point... which applies to life in general when you ponder it. I was watching the birds fight for their right to hog all the seed this a.m. - there are many out there - and was laughing at their piggish ways. After watching them for a while, I started to wonder why it's so important for me to feed the birds and why I enjoy watching them all year long and it hit me - it's because that was something my Mom was very vehement about. She fed birds and could name birds and had books on birds. I wondered if now I feed the birds as a learned behavior or because I enjoy it as much? (I do enjoy it, I must admit. I spent a whole summer raising a baby black bird, for gosh sakes. I have sandhill cranes that claim my yard as their own and bring their babies to me.) My Mom never got her driver's license. I can look back now and figure it was one of two things...sheer fear of driving (many people have fear and/or panic attacks over doing things as I can attest to) or lack of self esteem (Mom sorely lacked self esteem and would let things squish her down mentally...) Since she didn't have her driver's license, she couldn't just get up and escape the family EVER without someone driving her, so she would walk. She'd take Grandpa's old walking cane and just hoof around the woods or down the road and back. As I got older I would sometimes go with her. I remember one time walking with her up a hill to a group of trees off the road and we just sat there as she named birds for me and also named off various wild plants. It was a peaceful time in the woods. I can see now why she would 'escape' there when she was fed up with life at home. My Dad was not an easy person to live with and I am sure neither was I when I was a teen... Mom fed birds and would walk to the woods - that was her escape; Her regrouping point - her 'F' and 'J' keys. I carry on the bird feeding and realize that I've spent many moments calming down and pondering life and regrouping as well as I watch the little birdies fight for seed. I thank my Mom and the birdies and right about now I'm thinking it's pretty sweet being 'me'...
My daughter is in Florida on spring break with her boyfriend and his Mom. They are staying with family down there, and I hope she has a good time. She left here with a head cold and large amounts of mobile mucus. We'll see how it goes. She emailed me late last night to report that the flight was good, but she ended up with a migraine. Poor kid. She's had issues with migraines all her life. I believe the pressure from the plane and the already present pressure of the excessive amount of snot in her head were the culprit this time. She said it was in the 50s and was a bit sad about that, but she did make a point to say she was wearing her flip flops with her sweat shirt. (You can't be on vacation officially until you wear your flip flops.) The weekend was an odd one. I received anniversary flowers at work from my husband on Friday. They were very pretty. As I was bringing the bunch of flowers back to my office (with the balloons - as we all know I HAVE to have balloons) one of the balloons popped on the overhead lights. It was the loudest pop of a balloon I think I've ever heard. It sounded like a rifle shot! Doug flew out of his office to see what was going on. "You're trying to give me flashbacks to 'Nam!" he accused. Friday was also our district band festival (which our school was hosting.) Both the concert and symphonic bands got division 1 ratings. However, there was an incident with one of the students that caused quite an upset with the group of kids who were around that student at the time. We spent Friday night discussing the event with our son, who was one of the group who saw the initial incident and it upset him quite a bit. Saturday a general call went out to all parents with High School kids from the superintendent (via the school alert system) to make a general statement as to what happened and what was done, etc. This caused my son to feel bad again, so we took him along with us to our anniversary dinner at Red Lobster. The mood didn't feel very festive, so I didn't get my normal crab legs. (Crab legs must be saved for the moments that are carefree and magical and sprinkled with fairy dust and margaritas anyway...) Then we went grocery shopping afterwards and stopped at Best Buy. Sunday I cleaned like I've never cleaned before. Curtains got washed - all the bedding - I sucked up dust bunnies behind and under beds. I cleaned and cleaned! I came to the conclusion that we are pigs. Pigs probably don't have as many dust bunnies as I found here on Sunday. (Even if pigs did have dust bunnies, they would at least eat them and save me the trouble of sucking them up.) My son had three friends over in the afternoon and they watched movies and played Rock Band and we all had pizza and anniversary cake. That was my weekend. Nothing fancy, just a weekend. And now I'm off to conquer the new week. Viva waking up breathing! Now, I go forth! March 5, 2009 - I stood outside this morning keeping watch over the pooping puppies and enjoying the relatively warm breeze that was blowing. The rooster out at the farm to our West started his morning routine as well. I was was waiting for his traditional 'er er er er errrrrrrr' wake up call but what I heard was 'ack er ack er ack' that came out almost in a sputter. I looked towards the field and I am sure my one eyebrow did the whole 'Spock in a quandary' thing. The dogs normally don't pay any attention to the rooster's morning routine but they also looked towards the sound, cocked their heads, looked up at me with a "should we be concerned?" look, then looked back again to the field. We all stood there for some time in a silent state of questioning, but after a few feeble attempts of 'ack er ackk er ackkkkk' the poor guy got his groove back. I should buy that poor rooster a bag of Ricola. This reminds me of how good humans are at getting all worked up over something new and then letting it go. Oh sure, we get our panties in a bunch over something in the beginning but then we lose steam and let it slide. I can only imagine how we'd handle an invasion from outer space... "You aliens get off my lawn!" "Now, Henry, they are just aliens. They are not doing any harm!" "Humphhhh." I am ever so glad there are a select few humans who have a passion and fire for their goal in life and never lose it. My sister stopped at my work yesterday to bring me a treat. She brought me two apples and a pack of those sugar free Jell-O cups. (Lime and Orange.) No one at my house will eat Jell-O, explaining that Jell-O is gross and moves and jiggles too much as if it's "alive." I, personally, grew up on special treats made from Jell-O so I am fond of it, especially lime Jell-O. My mom used to make Jell-O salads with celery, carrots, pineapple, and other things in them. When I was very sick Mom would give me sips of pre-congealed Jell-O. Normally I only get Jell-O now at Christmas when my sister makes me lime Jell-O and Irish shortbread. (*side note - if you type the word Jell-O a lot, it loses all meaning...*) I was busy at work, so my sister only stayed for a bit, but after she left I grabbed the first lime Jell-O cup and was just going to suck it out of the plastic cup but then I had Doug in my office helping me with an issue, so I felt sucking a wad of Jell-O out of a cup in front of him was not very professional. I was so desperate for that Jell-O that I rummaged around in my waste basket for the fork I had earlier. I finally got up and went and got a spoon and enjoyed the first cup like a lady. After Doug left, I proceeded to open and suck out every last cup of Jell-O my sister had brought to me like they were Jell-O shots at a frat party. I am glad there was only 10 calories per cup but I was not glad I had eaten all six because whoever said "there's always room for Jell-O" had NOT eaten six cups worth in a row at a high rate speed. (Picture John Belushi in 'Animal House'...) I spent the afternoon with a Jell-O hangover. March 9, 2009 - This was an interesting weekend to say the least. We lost a dear friend (Bill Secondi) on Friday. It was unexpected and a shock to everyone. My son dates one of his granddaughters and is best friends with another granddaughter. We've worked with family members for years, and Bill and Sharon watched my daughter as daycare providers when she was starting elementary school. It had me pondering death all weekend. It is going to happen to all things and everyone, but it's how we deal with it as the living that perplexes me sometimes. Death is only unfair to the living... Saturday my daughter got
back from Florida. She had a slight burn on her feet and face, because there ended
up I think I mentioned before that I got an ice maker (counter model - stand alone type) for Christmas. I am a huge fan of ice in my water and ice in anything I drink (except for hot cocoa and coffee of course) and the family was sick of keeping up with my ice demands, so they got me an ice maker. It makes 'nipple' ice cubes, and I made a batch yesterday. When I was content with the amount in the freezer I turned off the ice maker and drained the remaining water. Right after all the water was drained, I turned to go empty the container of water and proceeded to drop it on the kitchen floor. It was in slow motion, I swear. The water went everywhere. I cleaned it up. THEN, as I was capping the drain thingy on the back of the ice maker, I sliced my index finger's knuckle on the metal base. Blood spewed everywhere. Geez. I do believe it could use a stitch or two, but for now I just have the poor girl wrapped up in gauze and tape, and NOT using my index finger to type is a challenge. (We take our body parts for granted. I shan't take my pick nose finger for granted ever again...) March 10, 2009 - It's raining again. It rained all weekend. I have the Great Lake of Poop that has formed in the dog pen. (I can at least say I live on a lake...) I wish we all had holes in our yards where we could dump all this excess rain and it would travel via magical tubes to parts of the country that are having a drought, although I'm sure by doing that we would upset the balance of nature somehow and it would cause more storms and untold chaos in the big picture - but it's a nice thought to think you could possibly share your excess rain with someone who needs it. My daughter brought me back a little glass pretty-pretty of two palm trees from Florida. I love glass stuff. Glass fascinates me. Glass is made of sand. Beaches and sand and rocks are some of my favorite things. (Whoa - for a minute there this was sounding like a 'See Jane Run' book.) I was inspired (taunted is a better term) by my husband (who knows I have an unnatural ability to break the things I like the most that are made out of glass) to put my glass palm trees in my special 'Glass Cabinet' which is designated for special items I do not want to break or be broken. I put the trees next to the vase my daughter had made me years ago when she went to a ceramics class. (The vase has two pictures - one side is the sun and one side is the moon. I always keep the moon side facing out as I like the night skies and darkness. I know when my daughter's been here because the sun side will be facing out because she likes the sun and warmth of summer. This has been a silent game of ours for years...) My friend and coworker
Judy also brought me back a present from Florida (possibly due to the fact I begged her The glass dolphin is now safely housed with the palm trees in my 'safe from Sandy' cabinet. The boys did little playlettes and reenactments of my dolphin throwing and yesterday's blood letting which were quite entertaining (however I question their obvious over-dramatic style when it came to portraying my clumsiness.) Last night I caught four deer in the act of knocking the bird feeder around out front. When I shined a flashlight on them through the window they seemed quite perturbed that I would bother them in such a way. It wasn't until the dog police showed up, barking and smashing their faces against the window and getting snot all over that the deer decided to move on. My BFF Vickie called last night and we talked for a long long time. I love her voice. It calms me. She also makes me laugh and I laughed a lot last night, although we pondered the greater questions of life - we will still end up laughing. I don't care how far away she is, she's always 'here' with me. I love that feeling. March 20, 2009 - The last ten days have been uneventful, although when I was sitting here pondering what to write, it dawns on me that 'uneventful' can be just fine in the big picture of things.
Soon it will be the wee one's Spring Break trip to Sandusky (Cedar Point) and Sea World, etc. I am grateful for him being in band, as all the kids got to travel with the band(s) and go places we never have been. Since the boy is in every band possible, he will be performing a lot. They play to pay for their supper in most cases, as it were. I went to the last band parents meeting so I could volunteer to keep their web page up to date. It is the least I can do. The wee one wanted to earn extra money to buy a new monitor for his PC. He wants a big one, and found the one he wanted for $200. I told him how much I would pay him an hour to do certain chores and told him to keep track of his time doing said chores. He has logged in 2.28 hours so far. The thrill of physical labor wore off quickly. He asked if I could buy it NOW and he'd pay me back, but I told him that being 16 is way too young to start getting in debt. (He already owes his brother money for something related to his XBox...) We'll see how this goes. I expect he will not be getting a monitor any time soon. Work has been so busy for me, even though sales wise and economy wise, we're suffering just like the rest of the world. I have been frustrated sometimes at the volume of work, but then again, I am very happy I am employed, so I won't continue to lament. I will just seize the day and grab what I can by the neck and throw it to the ground with gusto. March 23, 2009 - This weekend was a productive weekend. Our dryer was dying a slow death due to a bad belt, so my husband fixed that on Saturday morning. I had researched on the internet on how to fix that type of belt for that model of dryer and all I could find was that everyone who had changed the belt themselves ended up having to cut a hole in the side to get to the belt pulley. Apparently the belt is originally installed by magic anorexic fairies with very small arms. Once the belt was replace, the dryer was happy again, and instead of drying a load of wash in installments I could now dry a whole load at one time! Amazing! My daughter came over to do her two week build up of laundry so she was lucky to get in on the new and improved drying capacity we had. While her laundry was doing it's thing, she and her two brothers and her boyfriend then went to eat lunch together. (My oldest son had taken my youngest son for the weekend. The wee one misses his big brother a lot, so my oldest was doing us all a favor - giving my husband and I time along together and it the kids got to spend quality time with each other.) After the kids got back from lunch, the boys sped off back to my oldest son's house (for the wee one was afraid I was going to put him to work doing chores) and my daughter finished up her laundry. She fell asleep on the couch and I woke her up and shooed her out. My husband and I had plans (delayed anniversary plans) and I was chompin' at the bit to get to Red Lobster. Red Lobster was wonderful. I had a total of FOUR MARGARITAS during our time there, and was very happy in general by the time we left. (My husband was driving, thank goodness.) We had a drink at the bar as we waited to get seated, which took almost an hour. Dinner was marvelous; I got the king crab legs and I cannot even begin to tell you how delicious they were. Apparently I was going at those legs with gusto, as my husband said he was being pelted by crab meat shrapnel. I always find it interesting how you can be in a packed restaurant but feel like you are alone at a table ... it's like you totally tune out everyone around you and have a private room - or at least I do when I'm eating crab. I would pity any human getting their fingers in the way when I'm eating crab legs... I did happen to hear something that caused me to laugh out loud from the table closest to us. There was a family get together with 10 adults and 7 little kids. The smallest of the kids was not happy to be at Red Lobster and was causing quite the commotion. His Mom took him for a bit of a walk, and he seemed calmer when they came back, but in general, if you have a table with lots of small kids it can be a challenge for any group of adults. At one point their waiter asked if he could get them anything. The one Mom responded, "A babysitter?" That made me laugh. Sunday my husband got up early and started 'spring cleaning' - he had the urge to rearrange some things and so we spent the day moving things and cleaning. We did get a lot done. It felt good to say that the weekend was productive. While I was cleaning, I found a bag on the kitchen table where my husband had thrown it and opened it up. There were 20 tulip bulbs sprouting like crazy! "OH MY GOSH, I'LL SAVE YOU !" I screamed out loud and dropped everything and ran outside. I dug up my little flower bed up front like a manic dog and started to plant the poor bulbs. It dawned on me that I had intended to plant them last fall but forgot, so they hung out in the laundry room all winter in a far corner. That far corner no doubt was drafty enough to freeze the poor things. I hope the poor dears make it - I felt so guilty for forgetting all about them. So, that was my weekend. I feel rather refreshed from it all. Now I'm off to conquer a new week! March 24, 2009 - Picture yourself standing in the dark while admiring the southern stars and humming "I Feel For You" by Chaka Khan (because you have had that song stuck in your head and for half the night and have been repeating to yourself "I'm gonna rock you Chaka Khan, that's all I want to do" over and over and over)...until suddenly that chorus is replaced by a distant thundering rumble. You cock your head a bit to try to locate the sound as it grows louder. You ask yourself, "Are the neighbor's horses loose again?" There almost seems to be an actual vibration in the ground from the thundering. Rogue buffaloes? Jurassic Park soundtrack? Then you see what it is - it's Stewie the Cat, running up the yard from who knows where after a night of frolic. Stewie lacks the gene that cats are suppose to possess that give them the element of stealth. Stewie lumbers. Stewie gallops. Stewie may as well have a large metal spoon and a huge steel pot, banging it as he meanders through the yard. There is nothing stealthy about Stewie. (But don't tell Stewie, as he doesn't realize this fact.) Yesterday morning on the way to work I saw several garbage totes ('round these parts we call them 'Herbie Curbies') that had been dragged from their positions by the road at someone's house and taken for a joy ride. I tried to remember back to when I would have thought that was funny. Maybe when I was 16? I can see teenagers grabbing a garbage tote and speeding down the road while someone held on to it out the window screeching, "Be Free, Garbage Tote! Be Free!" Now that I'm older and PAY for that garbage service and will be the one that will has to eventually CLEAN THAT CRAP UP, I don't find it as funny anymore. I suppose all we can do for now is be patient and wait for the day when the tote grabbers are the one's paying for their garbage service and are driving to work shaking their heads trying to remember when they thought that sort of thing was funny.... March 30, 2009 - Sigh. I have a feeling I will use the bold capacity of the typing functionality a lot tonight as I vent, since how I feel is definitely boldish about some things that happened today. I just wanted to give you all fair warning. OK???? Maybe even some underlining as well and most likely a lot of italics... Out of all the science classes that one can have in one's life time, I believe physics is the most important. (All learning is important, mind you. I just believe physics holds a ton of useful information you will use your entire life.) The wee one has a D+ in his physics class. That bit-o-information ripped my uterus out and stomped it flat on the ground, I swear. I checked his grades on my lunch hour at work and found out this juicy tidbit of information. You know, I wouldn't have even checked his grades via the on line portal had it not been for the fact he called me on his lunch hour to say, "Mom, you will be mad at me, OK, but I got my cell phone taken away from me in BMA, and you have to go pick it up." First of all - I don't have to do ANYTHING. I let him know this fact in a calm voice. He then asked me politely. I said I would go get it if I had time. He was texting his girlfriend at the time his phone was taken away. The normal rule of thumb is TURN OFF YOUR STINKIN' CELL PHONES DURING CLASS but my wee one plumb forgot about this fact. (He has been playing Russian roulette with his cell phone all year. I am honestly glad he got busted. I was so glad he got busted as a matter of fact that I emailed the teacher who took his phone away to say "THANK YOU!!" Seriously, he needed a slap on the wrist. School is school - texting your girlfriend can wait 'til you are at home.) Sigh. I was hormonal once upon a time, too. I am not so old I can't remember lust and that sort of thing, but class time is NOT the time to be chatting with your object of desire. Once he had my attention after that phone call, I thought I had better check his grades. (I had checked them on Friday night and he was still in my "I-grant-thee-the-ability-to-continue-breathing" range.) However, today ... right in front of my face was a big fat D+ for his physics class. Seeing that grade was adding insult to injury or perhaps similar to adding salt to an open wound ... No, wait! It was a 16 year old boy pushing his mother's 'OH NO YOU DIDN'T' button one too many times. He was missing work (and he was supposed to ask the teacher when he could make up his missing lab work) and he flunked his last chapter test. Not acceptable!! He has the brains. He is not stupid. He's quite bright when he's not thinking with his pants. It is NOT acceptable. (Please note my arms are flailing like the robot from 'Lost in Space' as I say "Not Acceptable...") I stewed over this for quite a while at work. I did not go get his cell phone until after I knew he would be on the bus heading home. I am not giving his cell phone back until after exam week is over. Sigh. When I got home we discussed the issues at hand. He apparently knew better than to argue with me. After we ate dinner, he did the dishes then headed upstairs to finish the pre-exam review questions. After that, we reviewed all of those questions - several times. He knew all the answers, and if he didn't know them right off the bat, he knew them if I posed the in the form of a question with examples. HE KNOWS THE STUFF. Why doesn't he try harder during the semester?!?!!! I reminded him he has to do quite well on this exam to raise his grade to a level that will not result in his computer being taken away and bodily harm to his person. He understands. He was also instructed that his physics grade will not fall below a B in the coming semester, since there is no reason for it to go below that level. Sigh. So, that was my day today. Saturday we had lots of rain which resulted in many worms on the surface of the driveway and yard and cement areas, but those poor worms got freeze dried on Sunday! (We didn't get a build up of snow like so many did in Kansas and the Plains, but it was still very cold and the snow that was falling was blowing straight across in high winds.) I assume the worms tasted like crispy noodles to the robins this morning, but the birds didn't seem to mind too much. Yum....noodles.... March 31, 2009 - The news said to avoid pistachios due to a salmonella threat so the first thing I want this morning after reading about that issue is a bag of pistachios. Power of suggestion. Maybe all these salmonella threats are just a new kind of marketing technique? When tomatoes were under the salmonella warning, I wanted tomatoes. When spinach was flagged as contaminated, I wanted spinach... Humans - go figure. It's 40 degrees right now here in my little part of the world, but it seems quite warm actually. I can hear peepers in the nearby swamps, although they are not peeping with as much gusto as they were. I don't bother looking at the weather anymore, as it changes so much and so drastically. I don't want to fill my head with false hopes. Yesterday when we got to work it was 80 degrees in our end of the building. The heat was unreal! My coworker Judy hates fans and hates a breeze blowing on her, but she was so hot she had an actual fan blowing into her office. This was a first. We complained enough to maintenance that by the end of the day it was 68 degrees in there. (By all rights wouldn't such a sudden drop in temperature cause a thunder storm or something?) In like a lion, out like a frozen fish stick. The wee one got up early to study this morning. Sigh. I am not sure how he'll do. Most of the information is just logical and if you know one you should know all, but that is my point of view. I hate to go Nazi on his rear, but I will have to go back to making him review EACH NIGHT what he learned in EACH CLASS. That helps him, even if he hates doing it.
I have decided the wee one will start driving me everywhere. He has no urge to drive. When I was a teen, we couldn't WAIT to get the heck out of the house. Driving meant FREEDOM. I have not clue why today's kids don't have that urge. In a way it's a good thing. (Although my husband and I did manage to create an environment for our oldest son that caused him to want FREEDOM - he wanted his license and he wanted to GET OUT, so we kept up some ancient form of crappy parenting there. The first kid out of the chute always gets the bum deal with young parents. I feel bad for my oldest son sometimes, although he did turn out to be a cool person and he was and is very good to his siblings.) It rained last night and will all week, according to the news. We can use a little rain here... It smells like worms and wet puppies outside - a sure sign of spring! April 7, 2009 - So much for "sure sign of spring." Now there is snow outside and it's 29 degrees. Gotta love Mother Nature and Michigan. (I think it still smells like worms and wet puppies - just colder, crunchier worms and shivering, ice encrusted puppies.) We had many power outages yesterday from all the heavy wet snow and it's weight on tree branches (which was way too much weight on some branches, some of whom decided to just end it all and fall off the trees in mass numbers, taking power lines with them.) Our main plant at work was without power for five hours. I personally blame this whole weather incident and power issue on my friend and former co-worker Jim, who just recently asked me about how I had my mainframe hooked up to the battery back up in case of power outage, etc. Yes, James - Point Taken :) I woke up with a new personal view of my parents. Weird. I wasn't dreaming about them (or at least I didn't think I was) and I have no idea why I would have finally thought of this unless it's just the fact I'm a parent now myself? Nonetheless, I woke up and I was hit with an internally broadcasted message on my brain's P.A. system - "Your parents tolerated a lot more than you have ever thought of and you must reconsider your views on your Father and Mother based on this new information! Oh, and clean up in right ventricle aisle 3... Thank you, come again!" I almost reeled from this thought in my brain, and for several intense seconds I saw many little 'things' my parents did for me that I have totally blown off over the years and forgotten plus I saw many 'things' my parents tolerated and hated but didn't stop me from doing these said 'things' - and I was amazed. I'm sure my older siblings think I got away with murder at home. I used to think Mom and Dad just sort of gave up and let me have free reign of my domain. Now I see that they must have suffered a lot to tolerate some of my decisions as a teen. They must have cringed and grit their teeth more than I could ever know or care to know. I do know, however, that the mistakes I made and learned from at that stage in my life as I was growing up must have cost my parents dearly in the emotional sanity department. I know this now as a parent. I didn't know it then as a teen. So, I start the day with a whole new respect for my parental units in my heart and head, and know what they must have known all those years ago... Being a parent is like spending the rest of your life time hearing fingernails on chalkboards, so the best you can hope for is to go deaf. April 15, 2009 - I am going to sit down and blog tonight even if it kills me. (I think I would end up being the first reported case of "death by blogging" but who knows nowadays with the information highway being in dire need of several new passing lanes and a few more exits and all...) I just got out of a nice hot bath tub after a nice hot soak. Ahhhhhh. I love hot soaks. I would live in hot water if I could. (That would mean I would have to learn to swim eventually, wouldn't it? I have never learned to swim. I can do a mean dog paddle for approximately 39 seconds, but swim - nope. So let me restate the above - I love a nice hot soak in nice hot water as long as my head is above said hot water and swimming is not involved in any way for survival...) I thought I deserved a hot, quiet soak tonight. I've been working very hard towards my main frame operating system upgrade this weekend. Oy, the reading! Oy, the learning! I never wanted to know all of this stuff. My fear is if all of this new information is going in to my brain, won't something old have to come out to make room for it? (I've remembered where I parked all week - so far so good. Maybe a lot isn't leaking out after all!?) I figured I was being tested by God or IBM's version of God when my tape drive died this weekend. I need my tape drive for backing up the system and such - and all my back ups are on tape should I kill off my system during the new OS upgrade. Sigh. IBM was out today to replace my tape drive. It seemed in working order until (of course) the poor hardware guy (who was very kind, reassuring, and looked like a younger Adam West) was two hours away in Benton Harbor. I think between him and the support desk in Georgia and myself, it might be working NOW. Touch and go there for a while. I will not know for sure, however, until midnight tonight. If Bertha calls me complaining that back up failed, ('Bertha' being my "main frame" computer - OK, so it's actually a midrange size server, but main frame sounds more impressive and frankly, now - do you really care?) then we'll know it's still broken and I'll just find a nice tall cliff to jump off of and end it all. When they downsized my coworker Jim several years ago and left me with all this stuff I of course never blamed Jim since it wasn't Jim's fault he had to go and leave me with all this stuff but I did resent the fact that is was now MY STUFF. I really wish Jim was back and this was his stuff again. (Jim's at a much better place doing cooler things now and he's always there if I need to whine or ask questions. He has this uncanny ability to understand what I am trying to say, even when NO ONE else in the WORLD knows what I'm trying to say when in comes to certain things.) I have learned from the best and the key word here is I CAN STILL LEARN, so maybe there is hope and I won't spontaneously combust this weekend after all...but I do have my doubts. (After reading the above paragraph post typing it, I think I need to take some form of medication to just calm down, wouldn't you say? A large dart from and elephant gun might just do the trick seeing as I'm out of Pamprin and rum.) I had such a terrible urge - no, a NEED - to call my friend Kathy in New York tonight. I can't explain why I needed to, I just needed to and I learned a long time ago that if you NEED to talk to someone or have a gut feeling about something, likely as not you'd best just call or do it. I called. We had a nice chat and I felt so much better. After I talked to Kathy, I talked to my daughter. After my daughter and I talked, my BFF Vickie called. I just knew she was going to call. All in all, it was a very stress "relieving" type of evening considering what a tizzy I was in to begin with. I am SO BLESSED with so many cool people in my life... Maybe with all that's going on, I just needed to remember I am the luckiest person on earth. (Thank you all for reminding me! Have I told you guys lately that I love you?) April 17, 2009 - Ah, my 'BIG WEEKEND' - I have removed myself from it in my head. It dawned on me that I'm treating like I treated giving birth - you sort of know you are going to experience something HUGE and since your brain cannot fathom it, you remove yourself to a safe spot over in the corner and just observe while core of you does the work. Funny how this feels so big to me, but in the big picture of things, I'm just a tiny little spec of sand on a beach. Still, I've been running around doing stuff this morning feeling as if I'll never come back to this house again - make sure the toilet paper is replace, clean the toilet and catch up on laundry and such. Duh. The band did a 'Flower Power' fund raiser, and offered bulbs and such for sale. You know, the kind of bulbs for plants that non-horticulture types like myself cannot kill off just by opening the package - the kind of plants that will keep coming back even though you forget they are there. The most I do every year to my yard is mow it and arrange the dog poop in a decorative pattern. I am not nor do I ever intend to be someone who would landscape. That is why I was so thrilled about these bulbs. Throw 'em in and forget the bulbs! My kind of plants! Well, they received the bulbs, and I was asking my son about them, "When will we get our bulbs?" and he said, "As soon as there's L." I thought he mistyped (I was at work messaging him at home.) "What the L!" I typed back, thinking I was being quite funny. Response back from my son was, "???" He didn't see my humor, and I didn't understand what he was trying to say. It turns out that apparently the line that was for 'Espresso Geraniums' was line 'L' on the order form! hahaha. They did not come in with the over all order, so there is a delay in putting the orders together for delivery until those come in next week. It is all so clear to me now. What the L? I just mixed up a batch of sugar water and will put my humming bird feeder out before I go to work today. I know they are almost here as there are websites that track their flight back to Michigan and such. I have taken down the bird feeder for seed feeding that was just supplying the rebel teenaged deer with prank material anyway, and will mount the sugar water. I hope the deer don't like sugar water. Sigh. The other night when I was up working late, the dogs went into a frenzy of pacing and barking and the hair on their back and neck was spiked up and I thought, "Ah Ha! The James Dean Rebel Deer are back and I will jump out the door and surprise them!" So I got on my slippers and did just that, jumped out the door saying "Ah Ha!" but I was greeted by a wall of skunk smell instead of rogue deer. The dogs had burst out with me in a valiant chest-out-and-barking kind of way, and didn't even seemed phased by the stench or the fact I was dry heaving because of it. (When I was pregnant for my daughter in 1987, I had morning sickness 24/7 anyway plus I had the grand experience of having our dogs at the time take a direct hit of a skunk attack. I was left trying to clean them up in the tub late at night with tomato juice and all sorts of things attempting to remove the stink. The whole while I was puking in between applications of cleaning products. I even used up a bottle of Jean Nate mist I had at the time. Ever since then, just the smell of skunk makes me gag, but then again so does the smell of Jean Nate...) As the dogs were barking and pacing about the pen and I was gagging to myself, all I could picture was the herd of eight rebel deer off hiding behind a bunch of pines nearby, laughing. I could just see it - The older leader doe says, "Hey, come here you guys! Ellie, go step on that skunk! No really - it will be funny! Just watch!" April 28, 2009 - My 'Big Weekend' came and went and now when I think back I say to myself, "Why were you so worried, you silly?!" (I was worried at the time because I could have stopped one of the few companies in Michigan still up and running from, well, running...) However, it went well, and the people on the help desk on the weekend at IBM are wonderful. I have scheduled the last of my vacation days for next week to use up what I have left before I "roll over" again on May 11th. I plan on doing a lot of nothing. Perhaps putting around the yard. The poor yard is in dire need of putting. I will plant the bulbs I got from the band fundraiser and mow and get some pansies to plant. I am going to go to my Aunt and Uncles for lunch one of those days. Just little things with no pressure and just for ME. I deserve stuff JUST FOR ME. (At least once in a great while.) This week, however, is just normal work and on Friday night the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra will perform at our school. Several of the brass section kids will perform with them on one song. The band kids also have State Festival on Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon as well. My wee one will be done blown out, he will. We had storms over the weekend and there was much wind damage in town. Lots of power outages and uprooted trees. We just got rain and wind at our house, but no damage. I am not ready for more damage yet. I am willing to take turns when it comes to storm damage. We're coming up on the 2nd Anniversary of our big wind damage of '07 (sounds dramatic, doesn't it..."Yeah, we survived the storm of aught 7...") which compelled us in a natural sort of way to get a new roof, new windows, and new siding. I finally scheduled a day for my class reunion. Took me long enough. Now lots of people won't be able to make it due to lack of money and/or lack of planning time. Sigh. I was a bad girl. I wasn't going to do a reunion this year for our 30th, but many people were saying, "We need one!" So I decided I would give them a day and time to be there and make it a "bring your own EVERYTHING" style picnic. I have contacted the local newspapers and posted signs and various stores and will start sending out snail mail to those I can't get a hold of via email. I think I'll plan the next one WAY in advance like a good reunion planner should. It would be fun to have a nice 35th Reunion where we are planned out well in advance and could spend a weekend together in Hawaii or something, but I digress... There were geese in my back yard last night, the little poopers that they are. There is one bachelor Sandhill crane that hangs around out front ALL the time. I do not lack for foul wildlife in my life. I had my first humming bird as well! Woot. Not only do we have to worry about avian flu, now the swine flu and aren't we all having fun? A show of hands for all this fun we're having.... April 29, 2009 - I called my brother last night to sing him a poor rendition of 'Happy Birthday' - his birthday is today, but I was not going to be up and about when he got up. (He gets up quite early.) He said he doesn't mind getting older, and I must agree. Getting older is a good thing, really - except for all Rice Krispie noises we start to produce as we age. I have learned so much and experienced so much and cannot even begin to explain the joys and awe I've felt over the years. Learning rocks. I finally broke down and bought some of that CLR product I see on every other commercial on TV. It's supposed to take care of Calcium, Lime, and Rust. I even got some heavy duty rubber gloves and used a sponge, just like the lady on the TV. (Our water table here is made of of one part water and 99 parts rust, and I was desperate to find something that would help me keep up with the build up of every known element from the periodic table on my bathroom walls and glass shower doors.) I suppose that CLR would work fine if you started using it the day after you knew you had hard water, not 27 years later. It took off a layer or two of the build up on the shower doors, but not all of it. Perhaps I'll have to do many repeat cleanings with it. Perhaps next time I won't cave in and buy stuff from TV advertisements just because I've seen them a million times. I used to wonder how mass amounts of people could be swayed by one thing - (example that comes to mind was the Hitler era) - and now I know. If you hear something enough times and stop thinking for yourself, you start believing what you hear. If history has taught us anything it's that there is no one superior human race and no one superior cleaning product. Last week I was talking to my friend Kathy, and we were discussing our thoughts on past memories, etc. Sometimes the past holds some pretty devastating stuff that we would rather avoid. I lamented to her that I wish I had gone in to the study of the brain, because it fascinates me so much. The brain is so AWESOME yet so complicated. Sigh. Yet as much as the brain fascinates me there are times I have so much respect for it that it's probably just best to just walk away...
Pre-Vacation duties (last Saturday) I wanted to mow the lawn. I did the push mowing while my husband got the John Deere tractor ready for drive mowing. He had her lubed up and the oil checked and off I went on the old John Deere. We've had that tractor since 1987. (As long as my daughter!) That mower has been a durable, low maintenance machine if ever there was such a thing. For 15 years of it's life we even used it to snow plow the drive way. That tractor has stood up to a lot. ("A lot" in this case means "me" - I put that mower through some tough times. When I mow, I mow with such GUSTO that small children and animals will run at high speed in the opposite direction when they see me coming.) To me, the first mow of the season on the Deere is called "mulch mowing." I am the only one that calls it that, now that I come to think of it. Most people would pick up sticks prior to the first mowing of the season, but not me. I mulch the crap out of fallen branches. I have found over the years that the John Deere and I have worked out many a family issue whilst I "mulch" my heart out. "Mulch Mowing" and "Stupid Mole Hills" destruction is very good therapy for anyone, and I highly suggest it to work out mental issues you may have, but I digress... (I believe I blogged years ago about the time I had PMS to the EXTREME and two doses of Pamprin Industrial Strength had done nothing to tame this she-beast, so not only did I mow my yard, I mowed the back half of my neighbor's yard without asking permission just so I didn't have to go back in to my house, because had I returned to my house at that point, people were going to be maimed and killed, and frankly I just didn't feel like going through the whole trial thing and jail time and such. Just another example of how wonderfully therapeutic mowing can me.) Back to Saturday - I almost got the front half of the lawn done when I noticed the grass was not flying any more and that the soothing sound of large chunks of debris ricocheting off of the neighbor's house was missing... I got off the mower and crawled around the mower deck. The belt had slipped off. I drove her back up and parked her, waiting for my husband to come home and fix the belt. I assisted in this act of restoring the belt, and as we were sprawled out doing this (not a pretty sight for two larger humans to be seen doing) we noticed the back right tire was very low on air. My husband filled that tire. I made it around the yard one more time before she was flat again. Sigh. He filled the tire up with 'fix a flat' to see if that would help, but to no avail. I had to park her. "I wondered why the mow lines were at a slant..." he mumbled. "I found it quite decorative, personally!" I retorted. He found that the inside of the tire was so weather worn it looked like the view of the Grand Canyon from a plane. He tried to get the tire off to replace it, but couldn't get it off the rim OR get the rim off of the axle. He tried everything - Liquid Wrench, WD-40, Buttery Pam - but to no avail. He came in after an hour or so and plopped in his chair. "I can't get it off to fix it!" he said. (OK, that's not what he really said, but younger people read this so I'll be nice and paraphrase.) Those tires had lasted 21 years. That whole tractor was a good damned tractor for 21 years! We supposed that if she wanted to be put out to pasture now, that we'd honor her wishes since she earned it. Sunday - we went grocery shopping and got items to grill and had all the kids over for supper. I think they should make the smell of grilling meat into a perfume. Yum... Fun was had by all and I will be pooping steak until next Thursday. Monday - I planted the flats of flowers I had purchased. I also found places to stick all the bulbs I bought from the band kid's "Flower Power" fund raiser. I am no gardener. I thought the bulbs sounded like something that would raise themselves and I couldn't kill. I ordered pizza for supper as I was caked head to toe in mud and dirt. Seriously, I am the female version of Pig Pen, I swear. I was happy I got in some flowers in the ground, though. That was something I had planned to do on this, the week of my vacation. Tuesday - My wee one was sick. He made it down the stairs and fell on to the couch. I did what any good Mom would do - I felt his forehead and poked him with a stick to make sure he was breathing. He had a temperature. I told him to go get his pillow and blanket and curl up on the couch while I called him in 'sick' to the school. He spent the day on the couch getting his temperature taken with a 'Spongebob' yellow thermometer while I forced him to drink tons of liquids. I didn't do much of anything Tuesday except take two naps while he was sleeping. (After all, this was a kink in my carefree 'alone time' week of vacation. I didn't have a contingency plan for a sick kid....) After my second nap, I got up and did laundry and dishes and normal chores. Tuesday night was a fund raiser at a local restaurant, so my husband and I went and got food to bring home to the ill one and then went and purchased a new riding lawn mower to be delivered Wednesday morning. (A Troy-Bilt, not a John Deere. Sigh. I wanted a Deere because nothing runs like a Deere, you know...) Wednesday - The wee one passed the Spongebob Temperature Test and decided he'd go to school. (Yesterday was the first sick day he had all year, now that I ponder it.) I made him eat a real breakfast and drink juice. I shoved a hanky in his pocket since snot was flowing from him like water over Niagara Falls, and gave him two Nyquil Day pills and sent him on his way. After he left, I cleaned the top of the refrigerator and loaded the dryer. I did dishes and then dragged all of my indoor plants (all spider plants mind you, since that is the only type of indoor plant I can't kill) outside to re-pot them. My poor spider plants were root bound. From three planters I ended up with six planters full of spider plants. The rocks I had put in the bottom of the pots to help drain them were sucked up into the root systems of each pot! Geez. I guess you should re-pot plants sooner than every other decade or so... The new mower was delivered by 10 a.m. (of course when I am covered head to toe in black potting soil.) The delivery man was a former classmate of my husband. I had not see him in YEARS. (He was the guy my BFF had a major crush on, so as soon as he left I had to call her and tell her, "Guess who just delivered my mower?") I had explicit instructions from my husband NOT to touch the new mower until he got to touch it first. So I cleaned up my repotting expedition and moved the plants back into the house, took a shower, and went to fold laundry. The laundry, however, was not dry. I put it on another setting. The heater wouldn't kick in. I laughed out loud. I couldn't stop laughing for a bit. (I laughed because every year it seems something major breaks down or explodes around Easter time. Easter came and went without fires or black smoke rolling out of an appliance and we didn't want to jinx ourselves so we just looked knowingly at each other and smiled and sighed a lot, thinking we'd gotten away with something extraordinary this year...) So now not only was the dryer in dire straights, the lawn mower done died...double header! Woot! After laughing like an idiot for a while, I got kind of depressed at the amount of money we were dolling out so I went and got my branch clipper thingy and went out to trim bushes. I left huge piles of branches for the wee one to clean up once he feels better. After branch reduction therapy, I came in and made spaghetti pie and a salad for supper, and then made egg salad for sandwiches tomorrow when I take lunch to my Aunt and Uncle. As you can see, all in all it's been a productive week so far, minus the issues with mowers and dryers and sickness and such. Now I'm off to haul in the clothes I have drying on the dog's fence. Viva Vacations! May 7, 2009 - There are turkeys acting all spastic in the field across the road. Lots of them. Some of the males are all puffed up (or the the females are having a really bad hair day) and they are quite noisy. Then there are the Sandhill cranes off in the swamp on the other end of the field hollerin' about something (probably about the amount of noise the turkey group is making.) In front of the field are geese throwing in their two cents. Add this to the cacophony that is the rooster out back and the robins calling and the red winged blackbirds tittering... I've come to the conclusion that Mother Nature, at times, could use a good conductor. My master plan to lose 100 pounds during this, the week of my vacation, have gone terribly awry. Still, we can all dream.. My favorite pair of jeans, which probably came out of the 1870s, finally blew a hole in the crotch area. I noticed this when trimming branches yesterday only because I there were literally ants in my pants, and I couldn't figure out how the little boogers were getting in. Sigh. I loved those jeans. I will still wear them around the yard, of course, but not in public. The crotchless Levi look just isn't 'in' this season, although I bet the Village People might be able to use them... I was going to dust the house yesterday, but decided to wait and do all house cleaning until this weekend, like I normally would do since technically I'm on "vacation." The volcanic ash 'look' that is spewed throughout my shelves and table tops from excessive dust has it's own je ne sais quoi, um - decorative aspect to it. Once I get through all the layers this weekend with an air hose and a gallon of Pledge, I will no doubt appreciate the detail of the wood even more. Today, I am also going to leave the house in exactly the same condition that the boys left it this morning when they left. Just because Mom is on vacation doesn't mean they are off the hook on helping around here. There, I am woman - hear me roar. I will now meander off and beat my chest and pee on some trees and claim my right to be the alpha female during this, the week of my vacation. :) May 21, 2009 - Remember when you were a kid and you made a guitar out of an old cereal box with a hole cut in it and rubber bands strapped around the hole? (OK, so I did that as a kid - I made makeshift musical instruments out of handy household items. Leave it to me to assume EVERYONE did the same thing...) So let's say you never did make a fake guitar to amuse yourself as a child - do remember when you would snap rubber bands at someone's head for fun? Remember the sound they made? (The rubber bands, not the wounded person in the line of fire.) Last night the dogs made such a fuss to go outside at 11 p.m. for no other reason than to plop down on the ground like mentally challenged hand puppets and just lay there. I decided I would sit outside with them for a few minutes. It was a warm night, there were stars above, plus there were hundreds of "rubber band guitars." Bull frog season! Seriously - there were hundreds of calls going on over in the swamp! It was quite amusing to me to hear all different types of rubber band calls. Twangy loud throaty sounds. It was a relaxing end to a long day. The last days of my vacation were nice. On that Friday I cranked up the "70s" station on the satellite TV and vibrated the house and the pets as I cleaned. I cleaned all day. I mopped, dusted, washed, scraped, and swept. I worked very hard, but it was FUN since the music was loud and periodically I would dance if the mood hit me. When I was mopping, the radio played the Village People's "YMCA" and after a quick check to make sure no one was at the door on my one side and there were no neighbors in view on my other side, I dropped the mop and did the whole YMCA routine. I was so sore that night but I had a hoot. *I would like it noted here that right after I did all of this awesome deep cleaning and my house was shiny bright, the field across the road was dusted with marl and in a period of 48 hours my house went from the 'geez, did you guys survive a volcano blast or what' to 'my stars, I love your deep wood grain tones and shiny home' to 'holy crap, did you guys live through another volcano...' Sigh. Work has been very busy. I am always amazed that even when production is down and we're not making much money that the amount of work I have to do is still right up there to when we're over booked and booming. I guess, depending on the job, it doesn't matter if you're doing it for one or a million - it's still work intense. I am happy that I am working, however, so don't take any of the above as complaining!!! The wee one leaves for Cedar Point tomorrow on a weekend band excursion. He'll be gone until Sunday and get home in enough time to rest a bit and do two more parades for Memorial Day on Monday. Tonight I have dinner with the 'girls' from High School, with the added bonus of seeing one of our classmates from out of town. Sr. Marsia will be in from California. It always makes me feel 'cool' sitting at at table with a full blown nun. "Stand back, I have a Nun and I know how to use her!" The other day when watching the television I noticed there were tons of commercials for insurance companies... for Geico insurance (where you can save money over everyone else if you compare it) then Progressive Insurance (who will compare your rates to all the top companies and save you big dollars) and then a few other insurance companies, all claiming the same thing - you can save hundred with them over other insurance companies. If this were all true and no matter what insurance company you went to for car insurance could save you tons of money, and you kept going from one to another company, wouldn't you eventually end up getting money back or creating a cosmic black hole or something? These types of things perplex me. May 26, 2009 - Ah, a nice weekend it was. The kids were all over for a cook out on Monday. Too many hot dogs were consumed. One can only eat so many hot dogs, but I fear I pushed the envelope there. Burp. I have been enjoying my
humming birds. There is one bird that hangs out on the fence and then fights whoever
flies up or past. Seems a waste of time when there are eight different holes to feed
out of and share from, but what do I know. If I could fly like a hummingbird, no
doubt I'd have to make split second decisions too, and perhaps all that sugar causes them
to be spastic at times. If you click on the little pics below you can see the bigger
picture of the main dude. I get a call on Saturday night from the wee one. It's not from his phone number, it's from a friend's phone. I answer in the traditional way, "Hello? What did you do now?" "Hey, Mom - I just wanted to let you know I lost my new phone on the Cork Screw. Must have flown out of my pocket..." Mind you, I was so upset that I couldn't speak for a bit. I lost my voice. My eyes fell out on the kitchen floor as well and rolled around for a while and my gut dropped out. He had that phone four days and now it was in Lake Erie?? I tried very hard to calm myself. "OK, so - I am gonna just assume you're still on the line, OK? I just wanted to tell you so you could stop service or something. I am going to fill out a lost and found thing. Can you let my friends know that my phone is gone and stuff?" "Yes..." was all I could muster. "OK, then - I'll see you tomorrow - love you, bye bye." He was quite cocky on the phone, but I knew he would be very mad at himself eventually. I knew he'd be suffering more from self inflected anger over his 'stupid' and I knew his friends would tease him. I didn't have to dish out any statements of disgust as a parental unit in this case. Sigh. I called Sprint to let them know to suspend service on his phone. Then I went to bed. I could only think of was that seems to be the wee one's pattern. New retainers lasted two days...cell phone lasted four days... Now that I ponder it, I made a lot of sounds that night similar to the sounds Charlie Brown used to make... He returned home on Sunday and was so depressed he wouldn't speak. He did get on line and update his Facebook status to read, "Yes, I really am that stupid" - and he fell asleep on the couch after berating me for NOT getting phone insurance on the new phone. He wouldn't eat. He just was silent and grumpy and every time he would go up to his room, we could hear things flying about. Mind you, his laptop is "in the shop" as well, so the boy was totally cut off from the outside electronic world! The horror!!! My friend Effie offered up her extra cell phone for him to use until he saved up enough money for a new phone. That was so kind of her, but any parent in their right mind would want the kid to suffer some to embed the lesson at hand, right? I made him call Cedar Point lost and found on Sunday when he got back. No phone. On Monday after he marched in two Memorial Day parades, I made him call the Cedar Point lost and found. I wish I could have filmed the whole thing - here is a boy with his face on the floor one minute then suddenly he's ALIVE and laughing the next. "They found it! It's in the mail!!" he screamed. Now, if it still works, that will be another story once it arrives here... All in all, a wonderful weekend. Now back at it, aye? One day at a time is the best we can hope for. One day at a time...
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spankings.
(I had to sneak up on the boy to get in a good smack. He's just too large and strong
to take by force anymore...) I hope he remembers how to walk normal for the return
to school this morning after Christmas break because walking sideways down the hall at
school, although acceptable, is not practical. We celebrated his Birthday yesterday,
and I made mini-posters to hang in the living room. (My youngest does several laugh
out loud impressions of Rambo and Carol Channing and an older Asian lady...my favorite
being Carol Channing. So the birthday posters that I made up and hung were all
pictures of his vocal characters with his face super imposed over them. Seriously -
don't you think he DOES look like Carol Channing? I asked if he wanted me to send
him the picture for his Facebook and he said, "Mom, I doubt if any of my
friends know who Carol Channing is!! The humor would be lost on
them...") 
feel 'warm' out and my first
impression this morning when I walked out with the dogs was to open up the
windows. (I didn't, of course, coming to my senses and just opting to stand out in
the dark sniffing the air with the dogs.)
and after that is down he will be
done. He ran out of steam as the project progressed, so his Dad and I have been
helping him along. I did touch up work and trim and also painted a few other
things. I wanted it to be done so he can move back in to his own room. The
front bedroom where he's relocated to (or as we call it - "Kenny's Room" - since
his friend Kenny stays there when he's over) is a mess and I would love to have that
cleaned up again. I don't think he realized how much work was involved with painting
and such. He has learned. He did a vector type art of blue rays on a white
wall with black silhouettes of building. 
being
ONE sunny and warm day she could walk on the beach barefoot - but just one. (I see
now that she's back it's warmed up a lot down there...) She did have fun, however,
and that is all that matters. She showed us all her pictures from the trip and gave
us a virtual tour. My favorite picture was the one I'll post here, where she and her
boyfriend were walking back from a restaurant and it was so cold they were cuddled up in
their hoodies. It makes me laugh because this is the type of picture you would
expect from Michigan - not Florida. 
for one before she left on vacation, I'm not sure) and it was a little
glass dolphin! I was so happy. Now I had a dolphin to go with the palm
trees. I couldn't wait to get it home. When I got home I carefully unwrapped
the dolphin as I was announcing to the boys, "Hey, you guys! Look what Judy
got me!!" (Mind you, I have gauze and Band-Aids on my right hand the size of
New Jersey from yesterdays cut 'n spew blood fest, plus the dogs were in my way and I
bumped into Kia's butt, but I digress ...) That is when the dolphin went airborne.
(I could see the look on my son's face - That look said a multitude of things such
as "I knew you were going to to that, Mom" and "This is
why we can't have nice things, Mom!" and "Cripes, Mom - are you having
a stroke or what?") The beautiful blue dolphin bounced off the carpet
(phew) and then the kitchen rug (phew) but then the poor guy hit the cement kitchen floor
(wahhhhhhh.) His tail fell off. I stood there staring at it as if my eyes
would heal the thing. My husband got up and 'took over' as he said. "I
will glue on his tail, and then tell me where you want it and I'll put it there for
you!" 
I
have been enjoying the warmer weather and the clear skies, when the skies are clear.
The stars have been so bright and I do so love to watch the heavens (that is, until I get
a neck ache - one can only stare directly up for so long ... or until the dogs start to
wrestle and I get in their path of destruction ...) This is the International Year
of Astronomy, after all. So keep looking up and enjoy. There are times,
however, when looking at all that awesome stuff up there makes me sad. We can see it
and all, but we can't touch it. (Perhaps that is best - sometimes humans have an
uncanny ability to ruin the things they touch...) I've also had the joy of being
serenaded at night by sandhill cranes who I assume are yelling at the geese next door or
just having wild crane sex, and geese who are yelling at the sandhill cranes next door or
having wild goose sex and owls and turkeys and the deer who are mad that I'm outside in
the dark interfering with the bird feeder raids, so they go stand across the road and
stomp their hooves on the pavement as if that is going to make me go back in the house.
