ol Doc

Red sky at morning......

2012-01-10T19:44:00.000-05:00

For some reason, the theme from Gone With The Wind kept running through my head as I drove to work this morning. This is a pecan grove near where we attend church. I expected to see a girl with a picture hat secured with an emerald green ribbon and gowned in swirling skirts - dart across the lawn towards the big house on the hill.

Just in time for the New Year

2011-12-30T15:09:00.003-05:00

Susan and Michael visited us between Christmas and New Year.

They came with a project in mind.

The plantings in front of the porch were getting a bit - uh, skanky.

They were all full of grapevines (well, then - don't SPIT the SEEDS!)

and overgrown with bird planted greenery.

This is the Landscape Design Team.

The Assistant Landscaper regards the completed design.

They took the time to hang a hammock for T.to use.

They also took the time to make sure it worked as it was supposed to.

We appreciate their Plant and Swing Project and anticipate years of use and enjoyment.

Happy New Year, all!

If you need T., you'll know where to find him if he's not inside.

Merry Christmas Day!!!

2011-12-25T09:08:00.001-05:00

Both boys got a knife this Christmas

Matthew went to play with a new train

Nathan had to find the first-aid kit.

Both had a wonderful morning opening gifts and clearing away the wrapping.

Merry Christmas to all!

A Prayer...

2011-12-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

May Your Christmas be Merry and Bright.
Peace On Earth, Goodwill, Amen!

My New Friend

2011-12-22T00:37:00.001-05:00

Meet my new Pandigital Novel tablet. - It came from Big Lots - purchased on Black Friday this year. It has introduced me to new novelist friends such as Sarah Rosett, Georgette Heyer and Carl Hiassen (I'm reading Basket Case right now, thank you Carl....) and made the Jack Reacher books so accessible that the latest of that series is next! I have the tablet in a protective case that I found online and ordered, using Pandigital Novel's Wireless to get to the Internet. All-in-all, I'm most pleased to have gotten up before daylight on Black Friday and wish to give a huge thanks to Elder Daughter and her son, N. T. for going into the cold dark night to stand in line to get a ticket from the store employee so she could make this purchase while her younger son and I waited in the warm snug van. If I'd had the tablet that morning, I would have had something to read while waiting for the Big Lot sale to begin, now wouldn't I!!

A little news

2011-11-18T19:32:00.001-05:00

Yay. Now if I could qualify as the only employee in the county......

Huh?

2011-11-16T20:03:00.001-05:00

This is one of our restaurants. They sell good Chinese food. They have a fine Chinese name.
That sign advertising T-shirt sales has the restaurant name on it.
Really?
Yes, that really is the name.

Is it just me....or.......

Rolling, On Baya Drive

2011-10-22T16:34:00.000-04:00

If you want to go to Heaven & walk the streets of gold. You have to learn the new password.

Roll Tide Roll.
(Click to enlarge)

Fallen Heroes

2011-06-25T01:17:00.002-04:00

Pensacola Journal Editorial Page, June 23, 2011

It has been a solemn week, since the news headlined that two men, fighting wildfire in Hamilton County lost their lives. They went to school in the area and I have discovered just how small our community is. Two people I have never met died and their deaths touched lives around me. The two firefighters were part and parcel of the life of our town. Someone Elder Daughter knows went to school with Josh Burch and attended his funeral today. She also learned that her mother attended school with Brett Fulton. His funeral will be held on Saturday.

Elder Daughter called me about 5:00PM today, asking if I could watch the grandsons while she and her husband took this friend out to dinner. When I learned that she had just come from attending the funeral today - and was in need of some quiet fellowship, I said of course I would watch the boys. Elder daughter described some of the funeral to me from her friend's remembrances - there was a flag folded and presented to a mother with smaller flags given to the surviving sons. There was a fly-over of the Ranger helicopters at the cemetery. The dispatcher called the Final Roll Call - asking for the firefighter to respond to the radio. After the last request to respond, the dispatcher announced that the fallen hero had not answered the call and was Out of Service for the last time. Oh, my! Elder daughter and I had tears in our eyes and quavering voices at the end of the conversation.

This loss is felt deeply in a such a small community. Keep the families and friends of the two men in your prayers. They stood between the community and the danger of wildfire and lost their lives doing something they loved. When I think that the one man got out of the area, realized that his friend wasn't there and went back in - the words come to mind, "no greater love..."

It was a Red Touch Yellow Snake!!!!

2011-06-18T18:38:00.001-04:00

The date was June 16th, 2011. The Lieutenant had just walked past my cubicle on the rug between my opening and the one just across the way. He passed beyond the cubicle opening and was heading towards his office door when he turned back to say something to me. Instead, I heard him say, "Is that a snake? Who put that there? Is it a rubber snake?"

I turned in my chair and looked back to see this colorful snake stretched out along the rug, just beside the wall of the cubicle across from me. Maybe ten feet away. About the time I turned and Lt. was taking a step towards the thing on the rug, it moved! I picked my feet up and Lt. took a step backwards.

Things got a little frantic. The office became a hive of activity with two of the guys headed for higher ground and two more heading towards the little visitor on the rug. One of the guys plopped a trash bin upside down atop the slithering serpent as it tried to round the corner and take shelter under our briefing table.

Oh, no! The snake managed to escape the Rubbermaid receptacle. Using the edge of the can to sweep the colorful thing backwards from the table, he managed to push it towards the cubicle wall near the opening. Oh, that's good, but it wouldn't be trapped. Another of the guys rushed up and together they stomped the snake against the rug and the cubicle wall. Finally they managed to get their shoes on the body of the snake pinning it down and the one man leaned down, whipping out his knife and opening the blade up. Slice. He cut the head off.

The body was tipped into a bag and the guys thought the head was there as well. It wasn't.

After a search in all areas the guys had moved around with this snake-in-a-bag, the head was located on the floor in the very area where it had been cut from the body. The guy who decapitated the snake kept saying that this variety didn't have fangs and couldn't strike at anyone. He said it needed to get hold of soft tissue and chew on it, in order to kill prey. That wasn't much comfort to know. I think I blurted out that I didn't really need the snake's resume - just please, please PLEASE find that head!
Thank goodness, I work with brave men and women. The guys surely know how to take care of snakes and the lady with her camera was able to document the actions of some of the non-snake handling men.

Coral Snake - held by the snake killer and hero of the morning

Shaken but not stirred....

2011-06-12T18:12:00.000-04:00

In Walmart on Saturday I was headed towards the main aisle when I spotted a female who apparently was one of those few people who are born with little or no jawbone. She seemed to have absolutely no chin, with the line of her neck running from her collarbone to approximately an inch below her nose. She was pushing a basket and was walking perpendicularly across my path. I was just about to think to myself, "Aw, the poor thing." when she suddenly clapped her lower lip upwards to her top lip and her chin slid upwards into its normal place on her face. I realized that what I had mistakenly thought was the silhouette of a chinless person was actually that of a person in the middle of a gawping yawn. Then I espied the rest of her. A pink sleep tee and stripped flannel jammy bottoms. This lady was wandering the aisles of the store in a sleep deprived state, wearing her pajamas and a pair of flip-flops. There was nothing in her basket. She was headed towards the dairy section, so one can only hope she was picking up some milk for her cereal. Creamer for her coffee. Something to start the day right, something to wake her up and shake her up and yell in her face, "What were you thinking, going out shopping in sleepwear.....!"

Maybe it would have done some good. Or, not.

The Walkie Talkie from Heck.

2011-05-21T20:10:00.000-04:00

T. and I were talking while he was trying to decide if he should take the tractor down the fire trail. He hasn't driven the Ford-built machine in a while and has been saying he wanted to drive it to the back of the property across the road and just see how things look over there. I figured he couldn't get too far off the track since there is a fence across the back property line and the fire trails mark the boundaries on each of the long sides.

The only thing he was concerned about was the heat of the day and how he would communicate if he broke down. He asked me if I had a cell phone he could take with him. I quickly thought of putting minutes on one of the two phones we have stashed away - one was an old one of mine. Red. I had put time on it and given it to T. while he was still driving. He couldn't figure how to turn it on. Or off. And, finally he couldn't recall where he saw it last. We looked in the car and in the bedroom but the phone was lost.

I bought another phone, Silver. He couldn't recall how to turn it on. Or off. And then he lost that phone. When I finally ran across both phones stored in our bedroom under a pillow on the dresser - I just left them there.

It's not like I really needed another lesson. When he asked for my cell phone I just said, "NO!"

He threw a little attitude over it - but then I recalled the walkie talkies. I had bought them a couple of years ago for him for Christmas and things were getting apparent that electronics weren't his strongest skill. Going through the phone fiasco had caused me to rethink the whole gift thing and put the walkie talkies into storage in the hall closet.

I mentioned we could try using the set to see if he could contact me if the tractor stopped running. He liked that idea and went rummaging in the hall closet until he found both units. They were still in their plastic cases- never opened. We cut the cases and dug out the batteries, read the instruction books and put the AAA batteries into the compartments. We tried the On switches and my walkie talkie chirped and came on. T's just sat there. We checked the battery installation and reversed the positive poles on one side. We closed that case and T. asked how to turn it on again.

Once he found the power switch and held it down, his walkie talkie came on. It didn't make a chirping noise but it did start getting warm. Okay, now we're getting somewhere. We checked the battery positions again and they were installed correctly but the unit was still warm. I had mine in my hand and was able to change channels and then raise and lower the volume levels. T. was still trying to get his to do something.

I looked at it and he had turned it off again. It was sort of warm in my hand. I turned his walkie talkie on again then set the channel to match mine and told him to just push the center button to talk to me. I told him to push where it said TALK. He did so and his voice came through the little speaker on the walkie talkie in my hand. Hurrah!

He tried it again. Nothing happened. He pushed and pushed. Nothing!

I put out my hand and T. put the walkie talkie into my palm. The switch was back on off.

Long story short, we aren't going to be using the walkie talkie set. It's probably flawed. Or broken from the two years it spent in the closet. Later on I may see if Radio Shack has any of the T4300 models and just buy one of them. Then I can give them to someone who would like a walkie talkie set with a two mile range and 15 channels. They will come with instruction books and neither of them will get really really warm when you turn it on.

Ramblings

2011-05-21T14:57:00.002-04:00

This is a rare traffic jam in our small town. It started right at the end of the driveway where I come out of work. You can tell I hadn't completed the turn into the roadway before cars had stopped. I hate when this happens.

This is an un-traffic jam in our small town. I would rather drive in this kind of traffic any day.

These flowers were planted from bulbs given us by a cousin. They come up year after year and I enjoy seeing them, like old friends in the early Summertime. They remind me of Charles Vining whenever I see them waving in the breeze.

This is a group collecting donations from passers-by at the local big box store. The group advertises as an animal rescue and requests donations both here and on the radio. I have heard some pretty ratty rumors about how they treat their animals and the condition of their facility. I wonder how they can afford to advertise over the airwaves. I would much rather see flowers waving in the breeze than see some child waving a bucket and a sign outside a place where I buy groceries.

Further Deponent Sayeth Not.

Happy Day, Mothers!

2011-05-08T10:21:00.001-04:00

May you have the kind of memories today that make you smile - recalling your children being raised by their loving mother and recalling your loving mother raising you.

I'm remembering the child who offered a snack to siblings from the birdseed can..... when Mom wasn't around. The spankee who shoved a spelling book down the back of his jeans when told he was getting a spanking. What was he thinking would happen when the spanker made that distinctive discovery!

I recall sisters playing outside and being called to come in for dinner. When only one child appeared and was asked about her little sister, she explained with a straight face that Lil' Sis was tied up and couldn't come right then. Literally tied up, as we found out years later!

And the Lil' Sis who mentioned a visit by her Big Sis and they were in an establishment. Apparently Big Sis didn't make such a favorable impression on a store clerk. Said clerk made a comment about Big Sis - and Lil' Sis had one foot over the counter when a friend grabbed her and pulled her back from wreaking vengeance on said store clerk. That's the kind of loyalty a mother hopes to instill in her children. The kind of closeness that makes a parent proud to know her children would go to the ends of the earth to protect each other. Or, at least over a service counter - if that's what was required!

Our mother instilled it in us. The greatest gift we can give our children is the memories and feelings and love they have for each other.

Pass it along.

One, two, three - - blast off?

2011-05-01T14:46:00.001-04:00

No, I'm not talking about the delayed launch of the space shuttle. Although it has been put back until the end of the week due to a switch box in the engine compartment. It needs replacing - so the launch is not happening tomorrow (Monday) and I am glad to see that NASA is still concentrating on safety in the fleet. It's down to two, now.

My Blast Off refers to the other night when I was supposed to be sleeping soundly. My sleep was broken by my two eyes popping open at about 3AM. Now, I don't brag about having an alarm clock in my head that wakens me for a preset event. Apparently, I do have one. Who knew!

Tommy's mother used to be able to pull off that handy little trick. She would think about what time she wanted to wake up and then she would just be awake at that time. No alarm clock needed.

My own sister has the talent.

But I have never thought I had such a useful ability. I had been thinking about the Royal Wedding for most of the afternoon on Thursday and when I got home, I checked the TV Cable menu and found the schedule had coverage starting at 4:00 A. M. Friday morning. So, I set the tuner to switch to Fox Channel for that time.

I had meant to set my alarm for then, as well but I somehow fell asleep on the couch in the living room before I could manage to wend my way to the bedroom. The TV will not come on when I schedule an event. The tuner will switch to the show I want to watch but nothing else will happen. I slept peacefully away. After midnight, I was still on the couch. One in the morning - still sleeping...two o'clock, still sleeping.

Three in the morning, my eyes popped open. Wha - what am I doing in here; And why am I awake? And if it is early in the morning, what will I find if I turn on the telly? Ah-hah! The pre-wedding stuff was already on Fox. Soooo..... we just sat on the couch and watched the wedding unfold until after the vows were said. That would be the Royal We. T. was still asleep in the bedroom.

I wasn't alone, however. The paper today said that twenty-three million people watched the wedding all over the world. (I guess that doesn't include the crowds lining the sidewalks in London.)

I wonder how many of us felt like we had sand in our eyes at some point later in the day?

Easter Wishes

2011-04-23T18:54:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter Sunday 2011

Signs of the times...

2011-04-16T14:39:00.002-04:00

I have lately had a penchant for reading some of the church signs posted in our little community. The one on the New Life church sign states, " An Closed Mouth Gathers No Foot " They just changed it. I smile every time I ride past.

The Church of God posted this little gem: " The Church Is God's Gift To Man.....Assembly Required "

It stayed in my mind half the way home -- think about it.

Is there a book for these collected sayings? A website where one can go and find a suitable post? I should probably start carrying my camera along so I can snap a shot as I drive by. Would that make a neat vacation? Post a church sign a day, as we drive sedately through the countryside. I'd need a pretty big camper. Maybe a navigator? Oh, here's the deal breaker - I'd need enough money to pay for gas.

I guess I'll content myself with the drive to work and home. If I see any more signs that cause a smile, I'll bring them to you, here.

Warm Fuzzies

2011-04-09T20:36:00.000-04:00

I follow several blogs - some that I have found from Ranger's list - others that I have visited on my own and been charmed by the content or touched by the writer's ability to create word pictures. Some of my favorites are photographer's sites and they have lots of pictures along with a view of events in the life of the writer. I have added another favorite to my growing list. Pioneer Woman, whom I follow as do lots of others I know, just closed out a photography contest where the subject was Horses. Oh, my! Can I just say that the subject matter was great and the contestants were so talented - I couldn't stay away and found myself checking back over and over. I recall Ranger sketching horses when we were younger and I admired her ability to create the animal she so loved, on a flat sheet of paper. I was always a bit intimidated by the real life thing. Horses are so big. I was so small. How does one control such power.

In 1961, when Mother took us on a trip out west with friends, we wound up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We went horseback riding while there. My horse was a paint mare named Dinah. I was terrified of Dinah. I suppose Dinah had walked the trail a thousand times and her only interest in going out with a rider on her back was to finish the trail and return to the barn for her hay and oats. My only interest was to finish the trail ride in one piece and on the top side of the horse. To that end, I spoke to Dinah almost the entire ride. I whispered in her ears, telling her that - if she wouldn't throw me off her back and would just get me back to the barn in good time, I wouldn't tell anyone how she terrified me. She must have believed me. We got back to the barn and I was able to dismount without my knees giving way. Dinah was led away to her stall. I was never so glad to see the back end of a horse as that day and haven't been on a horse since then. I admire those who ride without fear. I love to look at the beautiful beasts and have come so far as to pet and praise the two paint mares who reside in the field across from our house. These girls belong to my child, Elder Daughter. She, like Ranger has always had a love affair with horses.

To return to topic - sorry for the wandering mind - Pioneer Woman announced the winners of the contest and the prize went to Jennifer Warthan - of The Cotton Wife weblog and photographer of the most lovely shot of horses taken in the snow, in front of a great red barn. One horse was standing at the fence and the other coming along around the barn. I kept coming back to that picture and recommend you to take a look at it at PW's contest site.

Jennifer also sells linen-stock cards featuring her photographic art on her website: http://warthanfarmsphotography.zenfolio.com/fineart

I may just have to buy that shot that so won my heart and the Pioneer Woman's contest.

Poor Copy Machine.

2011-04-01T20:50:00.000-04:00

We have a fantastic copy machine at work. It is a real workhorse that holds a ream of 8.5 x 11 paper in each of 3 trays, plus a ream of legal size in the fourth tray.  This modern marvel copies, sorts, collates, scans, faxes and dispenses coffee from a special stainless steel pot that sits on the left hand side.  Well, I may have exaggerated about the coffee. We have to make that ourselves and pour our own from the thermos carafe.

And the coffee station is nowhere near the copier.

But the thing does just about everything else and is such a fine color copier that nearly everybody in the building runs by our office when they need a special job run. We can scan in images and send email from the copier in TIFF, JPEG or Adobe formats.   We have forms in the document server that print at the push of a button The company that gives service to the machine has been known to send out a service technician just because they haven't heard from us in a while and wanted to be sure things were going well. Oh, and while on site, they may as well check and clean the device. No charge. The company does not have an X in the name. I will not tell the actual corporation - but the name rhymes with havin'. As in, I'm not havin' any other brand of copier on the premises. Others may extol the joys of the ex-rocks copier. I'll keep what I got.

All this to say that some folks ran into a panic situation this morning. The FDLE employee who works out of our office went to the copier to run some forms through. He picked the finished job out of the paper tray and then went "Uh Oh!"

"What's wrong", someone asked.

I wasn't really listening, being concentrated on researching some stuff on my computer. I kind of picked up the problem by osmosis. It seemed there was a paper clip showing up on each page of the finished copy. Right about the middle of the page. Someone said to open the document feeder and see if a clip had fallen in - Another person said to stop running copies in case there was a clip inside the machine and we caused a jam, or worse - by continuing to run copies.   Another voice chimed in to say we needed to call for service before we messed the machine up.

At that point, I sat up and looked over at the briefing table where a couple of folks were inspecting the flawed copy. One of the employees who knows me pretty well saw me looking on and said - Oh, it's April first.... April Fools! That was you, wasn't it, Nancy! I had to admit it was. I had gone to the machine and put a paper clip on the glass and then pushed 5 and print. Opening the paper drawer, I returned the 5 sheets to the top of the stack and closed the drawer. All I had to do from that point on was wait! And not laugh.

It was funny and fun. I tip my hat to our daughter in Alabama. It was her idea first.

Comin' At'cha!

2011-03-27T19:57:00.002-04:00

One came from the west.....

One came from the East......

We met in the middle on a bright Saturday in March.....

Actually, we all met at the local Cracker Barrel and had a leisurely breakfast and a family reunion type visit over the meal. The mini reunion was brother's idea and it worked out really well. He said it was a shame we couldn't get together with our sister (Ranger) and see each other while we were all at the same end of the state at the same time. Ranger and her husband, J - are staying to the east of us while they are helping J's mom to recover from a stroke. Brother lives to the west of us in the state capital, along with his lovely wife - whom we missed seeing this trip. Each drove about an hour and a half to meet in the middle and we had a nice meal and then adjourned to my home where we continued to re-une (is that even a word? No matter, I'm going to use it.)

We had a lovely long visit and sat around the dining table talking our heads off and catching up on our lives until time to head back to the east and the west where spouses and houses waited their return.

I hated to see them leave. Ranger and I did give each other a bag of reading material so I have a reminder of the visit. I'm half way through the first one. Heh.

Letter to the Gov.

2011-03-22T21:38:00.000-04:00

Governor Rick Scott,
Tallahassee,Florida

Dear Governor Scott:

Re: Daylight Savings Time.

I. Want. My. Hour. Back!
Sincerely,

Ol' Doc

These are the times.

2011-03-20T09:56:00.000-04:00

T and I went grocery shopping as we do on weekends. We shop at Walmart and meet near the registers, after filling our baskets - to check out. I watch the register total mount higher while he packs the bags into our empty basket. Once the groceries are rung up, I will hand the cashier my Walmart card and have enough put on it to pay for a tank of gas at the station on the corner of the lot. We like to use that station because they give you 3 cents off, when using a Walmart card. It kind of feels like taking advantage of the system - to get that cents off the price of a tank. Groceries in the back seat, I drive around to the pumps with T. and he gets out to start the pump and fill the tank. Usually things go well.

Yesterday, not so much.

He got out and had a slight problem locating the gas tank door and I got out to show him where it was. I got back in the driver's seat, thinking things would go as usual. Put in the card, choose the grade, begin fueling. It's a routine he is familiar with. He has done it lots of times.

T. called me to come back out, slightly frantic. He had shoved the gas card up inside the receipt slot, instead of the card reader. He couldn't get it back. I got out. We couldn't even see the card. He pushed the pump button to generate a receipt. It seemed a logical step to him. Nothing happened.

The guy on the other side of the pump was kind of peering around the corner toward us. If he had offered to help we might have accepted but I believe he was laughing too hard to speak.

I would just have left the card stuck inside the pump and driven off, except that it did have $30.00 on it.

I told T. to go tell the person inside the little office what had happened and ask her if she could retrieve our gas card. He went. She came. She unlocked the little door and opened it to reveal the receipt roll and our card. She handed it to T. We thanked her profusely and she returned to the office.

T. went ahead and successfully pumped the tank of gas, and from that point onward things ran like clockwork. He mentioned that this was the first time he had ever tried to put the card in the wrong place. Now I know, I can watch him to be sure he isn't repeating the error.

I keep seeing that guy on the other side of the pump laughing without understanding. But you have to keep your sense of humor and it was kind of funny as it unravelled.

Why I don't like watching the news....

2011-03-18T00:02:00.000-04:00

This is a copy of today's earthquake map showing a 4.9 in the Gulf of California. It is along a fault line between the mainland and Baja. This is near southern California. If you look closely, you can see that the red box, for today is not alone. There are other quakes that have happened along the fault in generally the same spot for the past few days . It kind of reminds me what happens when you insert the tip of an icepick into a block of ice and start chipping away in the same area. Doesn't it fracture in the weakest line? I kind of think Mexico will miss seeing La Paz across the water.

But that isn't the most important thing to think about. Nor, the most worrisome.

If this weren't bad enough, I passed the spot pictured in the next image - on the way home. It is deceptively lovely and covers a vast field that is just coming into bloom after the cold of winter. We should be rejoicing over the fact that the long days of cold and early darkness are coming to an end and the Spring is bursting into bud before our very eyes. We should be glad, except that this is part of a large field that is directly across from the church we attend. I drove along beside the blooming fields as I headed out in the morning and returned in the evening. For those highly allergic folk who haven't guessed what this is, don't get too close to the photograph. This is the weed commonly called Red Top. It is an amazing sight to behold a half mile long parcel of field that stretches from the road, clear back to the next section at the tree-line. The setting sun sets the color to glowing a shade of red that's hard to describe. Not because we don't have the words; it's hard to describe because we are rubbing our noses and snuffling back a sneeze as we hastily roll the windows up all tight and turn off the air conditioning. Just the thought of this huge field makes my nose itch and tingle. My eyes start to water. I need to get some tissue and quit thinking about pressure in my sinus. I need to go now.

How many does it take....

2011-03-13T14:30:00.000-04:00

I am fascinated by the technology that allows us to track earthquakes and have found a site that also shows mapping so you can tell where they happened, how long ago and the magnitude of each event. I'm beginning to suspect that earthquakes happen much more frequently than we (and even some of the experts) realize. The past few days, when I have checked the website, the majority of quake events has been near the coast of Honshu, Japan. There were one or two in other locations - but aftershocks are still rocking the area off Japan and some of them are quite large. Once you click on the link and look at the page, rreload the map page to see any new quakes that have occurred. I reloaded one time since I copied the link and found a new tremor that just happened. It is a good thing to pray for the people of Japan.

I'm thinking that, if I lived in California and was keeping up with the tragedy in Japan, I'd be making plans to move right about now. Haven't we all been expecting "The Big One" to hit along the left edge of the country and kind of drop it into the ocean? People make jokes about it but I halfway really think it's time to buy land in Arizona, if you want to own oceanfront. That is not a joke. Look at all the tremors recorded for California. And Arkansas has a large number of shaking events. There was an earthquake off the coast of Alabama the other week - near Mobile Bay. Younger daughter called and said she didn't feel it where she was but there were people on the coast who did wonder why their pictures were dancing around.

Um, too close for my liking!

Of pinholes and vacuums.

2011-03-02T22:29:00.000-05:00

I've been following the shuttle trip as it is docked at the International Space Station, or ISS for short. Today, I thought it would have been apt to rename the thing ISH! As in, "Ish, what are they thinking."

Just a couple of thoughts and I'll let you go. First off, the team on ISS has been joined by the shuttle crew plus a new humanoid robot. The humans will leave eventually. The robot will remain on the station. There's just the one part that really bothers me. I mean, other than having a robot in outer space. Didn't 2001 A Space Odyssey teach us anything. Doesn't anybody remember H.A.L.? Open the Pod Bay Doors, H.A.L.?

But I digress. Aside from all that angst, it turns out that this particular robot has no legs. In order for it - him - her -whatever... to remain upright, the team had to mount it on a pedestal. I'm sure it's interesting to talk to a robot that can't do anything like move around. The legs will be brought up on another mission and then joined to the top part of the robot. At that point I'd have to wonder if the robot programming included the Prime Directive - "Do Nothing to Cause Harm to a Human." What if the crew tells the robot to dump the trash and it tries to open the outside door.

The second thing that gave me a jolt about this mission is the second planned space walk. The first walk went pretty well until the robot arm stopped with an astronaut aboard. There was a glitch in the program and the crew on the station changed to another controller and finished the task. I read in the online news that the second space walk was delayed. There was a hole in a space suit. It had to be repaired before the walk could start.

Okay, my question is, how do you repair a hole in a suit that has to be pressurized and function in a vacuum. Is it like an inner tube patch? Do you just slap on a piece of duct tape? What exactly is the protocol. And if you do manage to patch the hole - which one of us is going to put on this suit with a hole and step outside into cold airless space. Not me, for sure. I read science fiction. I know about the dangers of exposing even a centimeter of skin to what is on the outside of the suit. I don't care how much the manufacturer promises the patch kit will hold under extreme conditions.

It's like a famous attorney might say.........

If the suit might blow,
This girl don't go!

That's my theory.

How much !!?!!

2011-02-26T18:26:00.002-05:00

This morning, T and I went to shop at Wally World. Afterward, we filled the car with gas. Fortunately we had put some money on a Walmart card. We got 3 cents off the posted price of $3.41 and only paid $3.38. Only, she says. We spoke with a young man while checking out and the word on the street is that we will be paying $5.00 a gallon by the Summertime.

Still you need to keep a sense of humor about these things. Either that or take over a small, oil producing country and have a tanker bring the deliveries straight to your car.

SIGN ABBREVIATIONS: LOL - Love Our Leaded (but it's not cheap).
OMG - Ouch, More Gas needed .
WTF - Wait, There's Financing!

Would anyone have a pair of Draft Horses and a set of harness that would fit a 1992 Olds Cutlass Supreme? Will supply my own shovel.

The Battle of Olustee

2011-02-17T22:20:00.001-05:00

This Friday begins the festival weekend surrounding the re-enactment of the Battle of Olustee. Does anyone know when this battle was fought? How about where it was fought or why? Okay, please don't shout out your answers. I can't hear when you all speak at once. Oh - wait, maybe no one was yelling out answers. That could just be the sound of silence.

Well, for those who may enjoy a parade and a good fight, our small north central Florida town will present both this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is the commemoration of the almost 147th anniversary of the Civil War battle fought on February 20, 1864. The battle was between Union troops out of Jacksonville and Confederate troops.  The battle took place very near a a clear body of water called Ocean Pond and not far from the small town of Olustee, Florida.

Our local paper describes what happened.  In the morning of February 20th, Federal soldiers left Barber's Station near Jacksonville and advanced westward. Skirmishes started with Southerners. As the Union troops drew closer to the railroad Station at Olustee, the intensity of the skirmishes grew. Both sides sent additional troops until, by midafternoon it was a major battle. While the Union had the early advantage, poor communications led to the collapse of the 7th New Hampshire Regiment, turning the tide of battle to the Confederates. They advanced and then surged forward. The Union realized the battle was lost and began to retreat. By dusk, Union troops were on their way back to Jacksonville. Although they retained that port city, they would never again venture in force into Florida.

The North lost 203 men killed, 1,152 wounded and 506 missing. Southern losses were 93 dead, 847 wounded and six missing. Florida remained a Confederate state until the end of the war, less than 14 months later.

The parade is held each year now and residents who don't get to attend the Battle of Olustee re-enactment at Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park will still attend this event. There will be people lining the roadsides, watching elected officials and several Civil War re-enactment groups as they march by. There will be the 2011 Miss Olustee pageant winners, the 2012 Teacher of the Year for our county, other community organizations and businesses will be marching or driving horse and buggy. Some groups will be driving in old fashioned carriages decorated with flowers. There will be re-enactors dressed in period uniforms with weaponry and music. Abraham Lincoln will ride in a carriage. Robert E. Lee will be in the parade. Ladies in hoop skirts will wave as they are drawn past the viewing crowds.

The parade is held in honor of the soldiers who fought in the battle. It is like watching living history to see the men and boys step by.  Festival dates are February 18th, 19th and 20th. The festival is organized by a group called the Blue-Grey Army. There will be vendors with arts and crafts, food and entertainers along the main street downtown. At the battlefield, a Sutler's camp will present authentic living conditions and Friday morning there will be a memorial ceremony in one of our oldest cemeteries, where 100 unknown soldiers are buried. They were recovered from the battlefield and given honorable burial here. That brings things into focus for me.

The Olustee Descendant family will also be recognized. A man named Robert Christie fought in the battle with Company F, Fourth Georgia Cavalry. His actions as well as his descendants will be recognized during this year's festival. More than 300 of his family members are expected to attend.

Friday afternoon there will be a skirmish in our downtown area. Now the actual battle was fought several miles away from our town, mind you. If there had been real soldiers sighted within our city limits, there would have been panic in the streets. Nowadays, we see soldiers in period uniforms shopping at our local groceries and while it gives one pause, you know they won't be taking anyone prisoner. Things are safe, now. The first day of re-enactment activities will be at Olustee Battlefield on Saturday. The re-enactment will be at 3:30PM that day and the main re-enactment will be at held next day at 1:30PM, Sunday.

I have been to the main battle. The skirmishers advance. Contact is made with the enemy. Weapons are fired - smoke and the sound of rifles and the cannon surround you. Horses charge. Bugles are blown. Cannonballs hit the ground and dirt and grass explode upward. Men fall dead, other men advance in the field. Women rush in to attend the wounded and dying. It seems very real.

For those who don't want to make the trip to the battlefield during the festival - you can go out on another day and look in the small museum or walk the battlefield in solitude while you ponder the events of the past. I have been there, under the pines in the quiet of the afternoon. There,a passing train blew its eerie whistle. The sound echoed across the ground and absolutely raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

Valentine Memories.

2011-02-13T16:12:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentine's day to all.

The candy companies are happy.

The card companies are happy.

The e-card companies are happy.

The florists are ecstatic. Tired though. When Mama's and Uncle Bob and Aunt Mo owned the flower shop in Lake Worth many moons ago, I used to drive up from our home to help out on flower intense holidays like Easter, Christmas and Valentine's Day. St. Valentine's day was a telephone nightmare. The gentlemen would wait until the last minute of the last day before the fourteenth and then call to order a dozen red roses delivered to their lady-love in time for the holiday. Uh huh. It was as though they hadn't heard about the holiday coming and had realized at the last minute that the girl they were dating or engaged to or even married to - deserved to be sent a token of their feelings. Roses were the biggest item.

The shop pre-ordered stock and roses were the bulk of the order for that February date. Tulips were for Easter - or Lillies. Poinsettias for Christmas. But for Saint Valentine's Day, you gotta have roses. Mostly red. Some white. But mostly red, tightly closed and thorn filled roses. The florist supply van delivered the ordered beauties to the back door of the shop where we put them into buckets and buckets of water. It was mostly my job to snip the rubber bands off the bunches and then de-thorn the stems before putting the flowers into fresh buckets and moving them out of the way on the floor. I purely did not enjoy taking the thorns off. It sometimes hurt! You would take this device that looked much like a set of tongs - with a notch on one side that bit into the metal like a V, .... and on the other half of the tongs the metal tip ended in a complementary V.

When you put the rose stem in between the V shaped notches and pulled the closed tongs down the stem, in theory the rose thorns were scraped away. In theory she said, loudly, in case nobody was listening!

In practice, my index finger picked up a thorn or two and the rest of the stems were dropped onto the concrete floor, leaving the rose head in my fist. Uncle Bob was much better at this job than I ever was. After a while, I got where I could scrape the stems and successfully de-thorn a dozen or more before I had to toss away a lone rose head. I always thought we could have sold floating rose heads in shallow bowls just as well as long stemmed roses in fragile glass vases. Fragile glass. That's another tale for another day!

Once I was comfortable on the telephones they let me loose to answer the incoming calls. The Valentine's question was always, "Do you have any roses?" This was usually asked by a panicked sounding male voice. I took joy in telling them I'd have to check and then I would put the phone on hold for a while, as I answered the other ringing line. Back and forth I could go, assuring first one caller and then the other that we did indeed have a few quite nice roses and would he like to order a dozen before we ran out? We had buckets and buckets of roses and it was the early in the week before the holiday. Still, you never wanted your competition to hear that you were doing poorly on sales. In a town like Lake Worth, we knew who else was doing business and they knew us.

When the roses finally were gone, late in the day, the alternative floral arrangement would be red Carnations with Baby's Breath. If we were getting low on the Carnations, we'd make up bud vases with 3 flowers and some ferns and Baby's Breath. Tie a thin red satin ribbon on the vase and it made a nice gift for your girl without blowing the budget. Teenage boys liked the 3 flower arrangements. I liked Carnations.
No thorns.

The night of the 13th-14th, we would bunk in the shop so we could be ready to go in the morning. All the arrangements for shop sales were in the freezer case waiting the walk-in trade. The telephone orders were carded and tagged for the delivery van and we would load up on breakfast and coffee to energize the people working. From early morning until after 5:00PM when the last delivery was out the door, we didn't stop running or answering phones or having a grand time. I miss that little shop and those days. I miss seeing Mamas in her element - working with two things she loved; flowers and her family.

Carolyn's Flowers was incorporated in 1970 - dissolved October 1974.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all. Make happy memories. Order early!

Stupor Bowl Sunday

2011-02-06T14:39:00.000-05:00

It is finally Super Bowl Sunday. After all the season, the playoffs and the build up to the big game we will sit down to see who wins tonight. Green Bay or Pittsburgh. I keep hearing this high pitched voice in my head that says "The Pack is back!" while laughing maniacally. I don't know who will win. The paper said Green Bay was favored by 2 points. The game will be tight. It could go either way and if the score is tied at the end of the 4th quarter, there are new rules that govern overtime. The team that wins the coin toss in overtime would have to score a touchdown to win. No more does a field goal mean you win. Get a field goal and the other team gets a try at making a touchdown. Even some of the players haven't any idea what the rules say. It should be interesting. I just hope the commercials live up to their pre-game hype. I saw the Doritos commerical and I must say it was kind of cute. It stars a Pug.

If the game goes into overtime, I could be asleep on the couch by the time it's over. If this happens, someone please text message me so I will know the score. We don't get a Monday paper and I'll have to wait until Tuesday to find out who won.

Walk like an Egyptian?

2011-02-02T19:15:00.000-05:00

Remember that old song? It had a catchy tune and was a special favorite at Girl Scouting meetings whenever you had to present a skit. There was nothing cuter than a troop of little girls all walking like Queen Cleopatra, in lockstep - and all chanting the refrain from the song.

Today, the world is sitting and watching the Egyptians throw away their country with both hands. One wonders what will be left after this uprising has flamed out. Who will be in power? What will the price of gas climb to? Will America at last start to build a refinery in this country and direct our natural reserve of oil to within our shores or will we continue to sell it offshore. Will the peace with Israel still stand?

Someone on Facebook posted her concerns over the situation:

"We have had Extreme Makeover and Extreme Home Makeover, but I think America really needs an Extreme Spiritual Makeover!!! We also need to be in prayer for Egypt, if Radical Islam takes over that country, it won't just affect Egypt!!. We also need to watch out here as Muslims take over in our own country and I don't care about being politically correct!!!"

I'm not in favor of offending our Muslim brothers and sisters but I do share her concerns about radicals residing in this country. If the moderate voices of Islam aren't heard protesting the honor killings the building of mosques on ground in New York where the Twin Towers fell, if no one combats the increasing calls for Sharia compliant laws in this nation, who else will stand up.

And a week or so ago, the news reported that a book was found on the American side of the Mexican/US border. It was supposedly left behind by someone crossing over. The book details the last will and testaments of suicide bombers and the "heroes" who died. It may be nothing, but what kind of person reads that kind of literature. It may mean more than we want to know about.

After 9/11 I saw the man with the sign that still speaks to me today. Be Strong. Be Brave.

I would add - Be Vigilant. If you see something that concerns you, no matter how small - report it to your local law enforcement.

Brown grass and blue skies....

2011-01-29T15:45:00.000-05:00

It seems like we have had a cold snap going on since shortly after Christmas. The temperatures have been in the 20's several nights and we once had some rain that turned into these tiny little snow flurries. We aren't nearly as put upon as the folks in the states to our north. They have been buried under feet of snow. Cousins who live in Atlanta posted some pictures of their back deck which were just lovely; snow crisp and covering the landscape. It looked so lovely. Made me feel the silence.

Until it melts. Then it would seem that a person living with the melting snow would most likely start complaining about mud. As in, "Wipe your shoes off and don't dare track all that mud through the house!" Or, until another freeze turns all that snow melt into slick ice. Then you have to be careful of foot placements and falling. T. and I watched a video taken from an overhead helicopter - it showed a chase of a fleeing man who was coming from a bank he had just robbed. He had a hostage in front of him and together they side-stepped along the sidewalk, heading for the corner. The alleged bank robber turned to cross the street, all the while keeping his hostage in front of him. The police had to hold their fire. The robber stepped across a berm of snow that had been scraped up by the snowplow. He began to back into the street while pulling the hostage. Oops! His foot slid out and he crashed down. The road was iced and when he fell, the female hostage ran to the police. Shots were fired. I leave the rest to your imagination.

We don't have that kind of problem, for the most part. Around our house, if you leave a sprinkler running overnight - you may get icicles on the fence. Freezing water will coat a plant, frosting leaves in a sheet of ice. The water in the trough for the horses may have a skin on the surface. Our cars will have frost on the windshield that requires running the defroster for 20 minutes before driving off. Or, you can drive off if you're willing to hunch over so you can see out the bottom of the glass under the rime of ice. Your husband may have written the word cold on the windshield. Of course, it looks like D L O C because he didn't write it backwards. And the grass is mostly brown and crunchy underfoot, except for the areas that are weed filled. Weeds show their green much longer that the ornamental grass. There may be a life lesson in there, somewhere.

People are counting the days until Spring brings leaf bud and flowers.

Leaf encased in ice - 2010

I love the look of Winter with the brown grass spreading out under a stand of pecan trees. Their bare branches allow the golden light of sunset to show through and you can see farther than you normally can while driving through the landscape. There are neighbor houses that are visible now - and only in the Winter. So, while some are wishing for the cold to end and the earth to green, others settle down in the landscape and look around content with the brown grass and blue skies of winter.

On the couch.....

2011-01-23T15:18:00.000-05:00

I woke up Monday - which was a holiday and felt a little sore throat and some sinus pressure. I rested a lot of the day. Tuesday, I realized I couldn't go to work with symptoms that were making me feel so bad and then I started running a temperature. The highest degree I reached was 101.5 on Wednesday night. I called out of work for all days of the week, aiming for Friday when I had an appointment with my doctor. I was supposed to have gone to the lab for a blood draw but just felt too bad to try that. I made the doctor's office and waited to be called and shown to a room. They have a television (wall mounted) in the waiting room but I didn't even feel like watching the news. Finally the doctor was able to process me into the examining room and after a wait of a few minutes - He came in. Asked how I was doing and boy did I unload on him! Feeling awful, terrible - can't stop coughing and fever and misery and moans and whines. He questioned me on symptoms and listen to my chest. He then told me I had Bronchitis and he gave me an antibiotic to take twice a day for ten days. Cough pills to bring up the congestion. Said to also take Mucinex to help. I left his office with an appointment in 2 weeks (when I had better attend to the lab work) and a handful of prescriptions.

Four pills later, I developed another problem, related to the antibiotics. I started taking Yoplait. And continued to cough. Which is a scary prospect when you have problems that need yogurt for relief of symptoms. Time wears on. Still coughing but the fever is gone. So I'm making progress of a sort. And I kind of favor the strawberry flavor yogurt.

I will probably call out Monday from work which will make an even five days of sick leave. But you know, I refuse to walk those hallways where I may get the urge to cough, have to bend at the waist and then make a sound like a bugler sounding charge.

Sometimes I wish we could telecommute. I'll have so much work backed up that my job security will be assured for at least the next full week.

I'm going to go take some yogurt and lie down for a short nap.

Sign of the times at Athens Baptist

2011-01-17T18:38:00.000-05:00

Seen on the lighted sign in front of the church:

Many people want to serve God.

Unfortunately, most of them want to serve in an advisory capacity.

Changes. Everything changes. Eventually.

2011-01-16T17:29:00.000-05:00

We are ramping up a new CAD system at work. Some parts of the agency have been online for a while, putting information into the system. Others of us have been waiting. And waiting. And... well just waiting.

We have been able to get information about what's going on in the closed-off parts even though we don't have direct access. The agency website delivers public information and we can tap into those files and get pictures and descriptions of - uh, "clients". I'm trying to be a little genteel, here and not call them anything that might identify where I actually work. I just feel it's not something that needs to be shared around. My immediate family knows and I just don't think I can say right out loud - Hey, I work for ... who I work for. The leader holds an elected office and a lot of our files don't become public record right away. The less said, the mo' better! Anyway - when I ever retire, I plan to blog about the place and write a tell-all book and do all kinds of things that will let whoever reads these musings figure out my career choice.

Just last Friday, I went into the part of my computer that shows daily activity and Calls For Service that come in on a 24/7 basis. I was looking in the late afternoon and to my great surprise there had only been one CFS. My first thought was that something was very wrong. We have calls being logged in nearly by the minute. My second thought was that the system was down. My third thought was that the call center had been switched to the new CAD system without providing an alternate way for us to access the information coming in. My third guess was correct. The supervisor and 2 girls next door knew about the switch and were supposed to be getting a way to give access to those of us who need it. Sometime. Or, other.

By the time I got all that information, it was getting on toward 5:00PM which is going-home time in my part of the world. So, that's what I did. This is a three day weekend and I don't have to worry my brain about the access, or lack thereof until Tuesday. I'm sure someone will have figured out something for Tuesday. Or not. We do start training in 2 weeks for the new system. Maybe by then, we will have figured out some of it by looking around on our own.

Or, alternately - I can take a 2 week vacation. I have 300 plus hours annual leave. If I were an ostrich my head would be shoulder deep into the sand by now. But I might look around under all that sand and be able to see the IT Tech looking back. It has to be stressful for him, don't you agree?

Note to self, buy antacid tablets... wonder what brand the IT Tech uses.

Behind the Blogger

2011-01-05T20:49:00.002-05:00

I rarely look at Blogger behind the scenes in Dashboard, beyond posting new items and reading the blogs I'm following and am fondest of. But, that being said - there is a tab on Dashboard called Blogs of Note. I have started clicking on the tab and delving into what others are posting and blogging a bout. There is an artist who works in graphite and his drawings are amazing. There is a person who posts lots of pictures of cats. The New Year post for that weblog consisted of cats wearing Happy New Year tiaras and other headgear and posing in lots of ways to suggest celebrating the incoming year. The picture that won my heart was a cat wearing a kitty sized lampshade, complete with fringe. ( http://kittystampede.blogspot.com/ )

Tonight I found a blog I had to put in my blog list. The lady seems to have lost a computer and a great deal of input crashed. She has just started posting again and I was immediately impressed by her writing ability. She put up a story about a play that had me from the first word. The weblog is called The View From This End. The writer is from "across the pond" as the English say. She had about 236 regular readers - not as many perhaps as Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman - or as Melanie Feehan - The Coupon Goddess. I follow both those weblogs, thanks to seeing them on Ranger's page. I even have them delivered to my Blackberry. But The View From This End weblog put me in mind of sitting down with a good book on a rainy night. I just knew I was going to enjoy it. Take a look and see what you think.

Bulletin --- Everything old is New again! --- Bulleting

2011-01-02T08:19:00.000-05:00

For those of you who blog and follow Sarah in your Reading List or Blog Roll - she had to change the URL. You can locate her new weblog by entering www.natmatmama.typepad.com . The new Blog name is Adventures in Lake City. It took me a while to figure out how to change my own reading list (things are never simple, are they) but once I managed it, the new weblog became available - in the list to the left. Click there for her post and then be sure to add her new URL to your own weblog. Welcome back, Sarah!

2011

2011-01-01T01:33:00.001-05:00

Rang in the new year after waking on the couch to the strains of Auld Lang Syne playing from the ball-drop in Times Square. Quickly turned the television through several stations, hoping to find one that thought it was still a second or two before midnight. Alas, all the talking-heads were pretty sure that it was a minute or two after and already into the new year.

Still, tradition is a good thing, so I will continue a personal one of long standing and will write in the new year on the date line in the rest of my checkbook before I toddle off to bed.

And I will wish friends and family a safe and very Happy New Year.

2011, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011

Reach Out and Touch Someone

2010-12-30T20:14:00.001-05:00

We have had a network set up for computing ever since we got the netbooks. Only trouble with the system was that Elder Daughter had to either sit on her front porch, sit on my back steps or else come into the house to access the network. Outside worked on nice days but it's getting cold. Did I mention we had snow flurries the other day? We had checked with the Computer Guru, better known as Zeta's son, Steve. He said get something called a Range Extender. Well, first he said to get to get an N Router, which we did. The signal was better but still not strong enough to reach from inside one house to inside the other. So we looked into the extender thingy.

I asked at Wally World one day and received a quizzical look from the clerk. She gestured with a hand and told me to look at the end of the aisle. Okay, admittedly, she was with another customer who was asking multiple questions and he didn't seem to be getting any further than I did when she turned and smiled at me.

I took her raised eyebrows to mean, "What do you need, Hon?" So I ventured to inquire about their Range Extenders. I strolled in the direction of the aisle she indicated and found nothing that even vaguely looked like something that could extend the range of our N Router. I left the Electronics section without attracting the attention of any other sales clerks and slunk away to pay for my groceries.

Not to be defeated, I called around a couple of stores and was told they didn't carry Range Extenders. Elder Daughter began to speak about (shudder!) Dial-Up. We were in the area of a store called Onyx and we stopped in to see if the owner could help us. I've used the store several times in the past for my computer needs and always been pleased with their knowledge and service. The owner didn't carry anything for networking but suggested we try New Egg or Amazon or Walmart. Ah-hah. Well, we knew Walmart wouldn't work but Amazon... there's a name to conjure with!

Christmas Eve I did a search for the words NetGear and Range Extender. Up popped a suggestion and a price. Reasonable. Delivery sometime in January. I clicked to order and we sat back to wait. Today, UPS delivered a box. I opened it when I got home from work. It was the Range Extender by NetGear. Earlier than promised. I love when a merchant comes through. It's now New Year's Eve - Eve and Elder Daughter is cozily inside her home, connected to my NetGear Router signal which delivers Internet to her netbook - and if you take a look at the photograph - all lights are green and the curtain is drawn across the window. This Extender really does do the job.

Thanks Onyx and John Gunther. Thanks J & R (JR.Com) and Thanks Steve for your help.

Take that, Dial-Up!

But, Baby it's COLD outside!

2010-12-26T08:15:00.000-05:00

Elder Daughter called this morning at about 7:45AM and told us it was sleeting. The wind was blowing the rain out of the trees and it was ice. Sleet was all over the top of her car. Of course, I had to take a picture. This is the cover of our grill on the back patio.

What's next Florida? SNOW?

Shared Christmas

2010-12-25T10:36:00.006-05:00

Nathan and Matthew were up early but so were their Mom and Dad; a neighbor's stallion got out on Christmas Eve and was in front of our property when Rich came home. He called local law enforcement and they sent a car to try and locate the owner. At the end of the event, there were three police cars running up and down the road and another neighbor finally identified the horse owners and led the deputies to call on the owners. The owners came down and finally tied the stallion to the bumper of their car and slowly walked him back home.

Because Sarah and Rich were up so late with the horse visitation, they slept in this morning. The boys were up at about 4:00AM but went back to their room when Mom and Dad seemed reluctant to open presents with only an hour of sleep.

Nathan got his bass guitar.

Matthew found a new bike on the front porch.

The faces tell the story.

Tommy and I enjoyed the morning spent with family

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus.

Winding down.

2010-12-23T17:35:00.000-05:00

Went out shopping with Elder Daughter and the Grandsons this morning. We had a few errands to do and one more gift to buy. We began by mailing a double handful of Christmas cards. There was no line to the outside mailboxes. Traffic was light. The mall wasn't too crowded. TJ Maxx was busy but not so much that it deterred us in our quest for the perfect last minute purchase. Odd Lots had some things of interest. Home Depot was a source of one of my major purchases. Relieved, we turned towards Walmart and found some things to fill out the stocking stuffer agenda.

There is one more day, Christmas Eve - and then it will be Christmas Day. All the stress will be worthwhile. Presents to open, food to consume. Telephone calls to keep in touch across the miles. Love to share with family. And, amid the hustle and bustle of the holiday, we need to take time to dwell on the Real reason for the Season. Two thousand years ago, give or take a few - a child was born in a small town. Angels welcomed Him and shepherds left their flocks and ran to worship. Wise men came from far away lands to bring precious gifts. This child whose birth we celebrate is the real reason for the joy of the season. Let us not lose sight of this truth during the hurry to get things done - the buying and wrapping, the cooking and serving and cleaning up. The enjoyment of the gifts we exchange - let us recall the greatest Gift of all.

Peace on Earth. Good Will Towards Men!

How'd we get so dependent on the technology stuff!

2010-12-16T23:45:00.000-05:00

This morning, I put my cellphone in the top of my purse but inadvertently dropped my sunglasses on the rug. I leaned down to retrieve them. This time of the morning,the sun is in my face driving to work. I need those clip-on shades to see down the road. They are quite necessary in my getting to work scheme-of-things. Satisfied that I had all my equipment, I set off on my way to work. I passed familiar landmarks and came to the bend in the county road where there is a chicken farm. I put my hand in my purse and rummaged for my cell phone. Rummaged. Ru-u-ummaged. Couldn't find it. I pulled over into a driveway and really tore the purse apart. The phone wasn't there. I turned around and double timed back to the road we live on, sped down to the house and stopped in the drive. I had to unlock the door to get in and met T coming from the living room. He offered to help me look for the phone, a Blackberry Curve in a shade of maroon that matches my netbook. I'm really fond of that phone.

Long story short, we couldn't find the phone. T said he'd continue to look, although he wasn't really sure what it looked like. I headed off to work and made it just on time. I felt somehow bereft. Like an arm was tied behind my back. Like I couldn't do my work without that phone linking me to home and family. And the Internet and Facebook, which we can't access from our work server. I slogged through and finally called the house about 11:00AM. T.said he wasn't sure but he thought he had located my phone. He described the object in his hand. Kind of reddish, with silver and black buttons and numbers and a-b-c...and the word Blackberry on the top. Oh, yes! That's it. I asked where he had found the phone. He said it was on the rug, just under the table. We both had looked there earlier in the morning and I hadn't seen the blasted thing. Apparently - in addition to all the other features the phone has, there is an invisibility button somewhere and I must have switched it on before the phone jumped out of my purse. It may be a smart phone, but it isn't all that bright.

This is a simulation of the view it had to endure all morning before it made itself visible to T and was returned to the tabletop to wait for me to come home after work.

Time to peek?

2010-12-14T19:46:00.001-05:00

Tonight Elder Daughter came over and wrapped a few gifts to the boys from us. She sent them into our bedroom to watch television while she worked and took the wrapping materials from the closet. Sounding like a surgeon (Tape? Scissors? Labels?, Bows? Yes Doctor, here they are!), she set up her work station (dining room table) and started with the first box. She was able to complete the project and I wrote out labels and stole the tape back to attach them. Slap a bow on top and add the box to the growing pile.

She called the boys to come and carry the pile of presents out to the van. The gifts will wind up under her tree to be opened on Christmas morning. She says the boys will not shake, pick at tape or rummage among the pile - they know what will happen should they be found trying to see what any box contains. The threat dominates the conversation; if they are found trying to peek - that present will immediately be returned to the seller and will not be given.

I'm not sure my DNA is present in these people. I can recall carefully peeling scotch tape when it used to be only the shiny variety. If you went slowly enough, you could get enough tape off to be able to open the paper and maybe read the box. I almost never tore the gift wrap when opening a present. My younger brother could just pick up a present and shake it - then announce that it was clothes or toy soldiers. He was almost always correct and could remove a box from within the wrapping so deftly that no one could tell which gift he had been into. Except for the year we wrapped up rocks and chains in a heavily taped box and put them under the tree. He couldn't figure out that heavy present that clanked. He was intrigued, though. When he finally got to open it on Christmas day his face was a mix of surprise and shock. Huh? What is this! We brought out the real gift that had lain quietly hidden away. I don't think he quite ever forgave us for that gift. I don't know what he imagined it could have been - we just knew he would be all over it trying to outsmart us and find out what was inside.

Still, we look forward to the joyful morning when family gathers and each gift is undone and the thanks are given and the older folks believe the younger ones had no idea what was in the box and under the paper and ribbon - at least until the moment of the opening and the squeal of, "Thank you, Grandma or Grampa!"

Shop 'til your feet drop...

2010-12-04T19:41:00.000-05:00

So, I went out today with Elder Sister (our daughter who lives behind us on the property) and we went Christmas shopping this morning. I had no idea the amount of people who were in the stores, business was brisk and the crowded stores were still offering dollars off on the items I wanted. I got three people finished and part of the fourth 'lil guy has a good start, plus I know what I'm going to buy to finish his list. That leaves his mommy and a son-in-law to buy for. But not today. The rest of the day is dedicated to putting my poor feet up and taking Tylenol to relieve the throbbing arches. I'm not even going to tiptoe out on the porch to turn on the outside lights. Nope - just gonna' luxuriate in the feeling of having no shoes on. Wiggle toes, go ahead, you can do it. No groaning from down there!

Well, maybe I'll turn on the Christmas lights for a little while. If I can get my feet to agree to get back down on the floor long enough to walk outside.

Post Turkey Post. Or, Turkey Post Post. Or, Post Post Turkey. Whichever...

2010-11-29T00:26:00.001-05:00

We travelled 600 total miles and stuffed ourselves, shopped 'til we dropped and went pier fishing on the coldest day of the year. We about went deaf during the televised Alabama/Auburn game which was playing loudly while we were dining at The Hangout. We got to meet friends of our Alabama daughter that we knew from Facebook.
We had ups and downs and brought home warm memories that linger in the heart.... hugs, kisses, sweet grandchildren and a surprise waiting when we returned home. Thank you Susan, Sarah, Mikey, Nathan and Matthew for your love and decorating talents. The lighted tree at Susan's and our front yard all decorated when we returned are but two highlights of our Thanksgiving visit and return home.

The sunset picture was taken by our Alabama Daughter, from her balcony. It is on its way to my cell phone and just stopped by so y'all could admire the photographer's skill.

Turkey Day

2010-11-23T14:46:00.000-05:00

We were coming back from a quick trip to town to get a few cans extra of pet food. We wanted to have enough on hand in case our trip to 'Bama goes into Saturday and the cat and dog think their stomachs are dining on their backbones. It's bad enough the cat still hasn't adjusted to Daylight Savings Time and serenades us at 11AM instead of 12PM. She is in the habit of rowling out when she gets hungry and the established feeding time used to be noon. So what if she's an hour off by the clock. Her tummy still rumbles and she still sings for her dinner to be dished up on her own time table. If she wore a watch, things might be better. But, I digress.

The car was pointed down the highway and we had just crested the big hill on the Branford Highway and were coasting down the south slope. I glanced over at the small pond to the right and let my eyes slip across the view from the water to the grass in the yard. I saw two large and really dark birds stalking along the inside fence line. I pulled my eyes back to the road ahead of me and told T., "I think I just saw turkeys in that yard!" He wanted to know where and I told him they were in the yard of the house with the pond. He said he hadn't seen them and told me to double back to let him take a look. We whipped the block at the next corner and came back around to the main highway again. As soon as traffic was clear, I turned northward and we drove back the way we had just come. After we cleared the tree line, T. proclaimed, "Yes - I see them. They're turkeys." Good to have my observation confirmed.

I started up the hill again but as we came to the driveway for the house, I told T. I was going to swing around and take another look. There was no objection to the plan, so I made a small circle in the driveway and headed back downhill towards the south. Sure enough, there were two huge tom turkeys parading in the yard. They were of a size to feast upon! As we drew abreast of the pair, one lifted and soared across the fence into the enclosed yard. I guess he had seen our car circling around and he probably got a bit nervous, imagining the rifle being poked out the side windows on our next pass.

Little did he know that these pioneers are used to procuring their turkeys in the frozen wastes of the nearest Publix or Walmart cold case. May those two majestic turkeys can live a long life and enjoy lots of happy Thanksgivings in peace and prosperity.

We wish you the same!

Tis the Season, almost!

2010-11-15T22:15:00.000-05:00

This time last year I had been looking at all the websites, like Woot.com and eBay - hoping to save a bit of the long green on my Christmas shopping. This year the Black Friday ads have been popping up in my phone for a month, at least! There are some good deals, if you're in the market for televisions and other electronics. I'm not in that market and I'm hoping nobody else in the immediate gift giving range is, either. With the economy in such bad shape, I've got a feeling the retail stores aren't going to have such a banner year as they hope.

I want coupons and sales that cut prices to the bare bones.

I can't shop though, until I take myself into the bank and renew that little piece of plastic we use at the ATM and most other points of sale. When did cool cash disappear? I haven't seen the inside of my checkbook in such a long time. Groceries? Swipe that card. Clothing and shoes? Swipe, swipe. If I don't take a minute to see my banker, the likelihood is that we'll be spending Thanksgiving day with our daughter in Alabama and using the checkbook exclusively to pay our way.

We have plans to do the Black Friday Shopping while we're out there. We will be using some of our traditional family moves. You know, wake up and squint at the clock. Say in a disbelieving voice, "Are we really going shopping at this time of the morning?" Wait for the voice of reason to say, "Of course not, Mama, go back to sleep."

And the voice of reason will have taken the morning off! My sweet daughter in Alabama will insist that I rouse myself and hurriedly dress so we can get to the sale before all the good stuff is gone. Which I will do, with mutterings and gnashing of teeth. Possibly there will be bumping of knees, in the dark.

Returning home to her apartment, shopping completed - I'm sure we will feel virtuous and pleased with the savings we have amassed. I'm sure as well that I will forget that I have driven 300-plus miles to stand in the cold and dark with a couple of hundred fellow bargain hunters. At that point in time, however - my idea of a swell Christmas gift will probably be a couple of Tylenol and an hour off my feet. I really need to update my card. Tomorrow.

Delimna?

2010-11-07T16:20:00.000-05:00

The Veteran's Day holiday this year is on the 11th of the month. That is a Thursday.

The next day - Friday, is not a holiday. One would think the calendar planners could have moved Thursday a little closer to the weekend this year and given us working stiffs a 3 day weekend. But, no! They inserted that pesky Friday into my weekend, forcing me to split my days off.

This puts an extra day in the way of our annual Veteran's Day parades and the placing flags at the cemetery. We can't even thank our servicemen who are doing so much to protect and preserve our way of life - we should wait until the weekend comes!

Or no, we don't have to wait, do we! We can say thank you right now to all servicemen in all branches- whether on active duty, reserve or retired. And we should do that today. And tomorrow and every day that comes under the freedoms they have fought to preserve.

Thank you to all branches. We salute you!

Took me two days!

2010-10-31T08:56:00.000-04:00

I saw it on Amazon and preordered it.

It came.

I dropped all else and just read and read.

This was so good and was well enjoyed as Father Tim and Cynthia Kav'na visit Ireland with new characters to interact with. Jan Karon calls this book her "dark haired child". One hopes she will keep writing and writing. We love the folks from Mitford! We also love a good cry, along the way.

Well, we voted as well as if we lived in Chicago!

2010-10-23T15:25:00.000-04:00

I received a sample ballot in the mail and thoughtfully pre-marked it for T. to use when we went to the polls. This morning, we got up - not so early as I had planned... but once we were dressed and had everything we needed, we headed out to vote. Doing our civic duty, don't you know.

We got to the polling place after 9:00a.m. We showed our picture and signature identifications and went into the elections office where we both signed the electronic machines and got our receipts. Stepping to the next window as instructed, we picked up our full size official ballot. We went to a vacant pair of side-by-side voting booths and opened out our ballots. T. asked me if we had to mark both sides? I nodded yes and whispered for him to take out his sample ballot and start voting. He did so and I got down to marking the little circles with the provided pen on my own ballot. So far, so good - until T. got to the end of the line on his sample ballot. It didn't correspond exactly to the official ballot and he'd lost his place. I glanced over and found the slot he needed to mark next and pointed to it. He said he didn't see it. I touched the space on the ballot. He couldn't find the same spot on the sample. I touched that space. He lined things up and proceeded to mark the next group.

We continued in this manner until the end of the ballot - I thought surely someone would come over and quietly ask me to stop interfering with the voting. I was as much up in T.'s voting booth as I was in mine, trying to guide him along. We still needed to flip the ballot and vote the back side.

Flip.

T: "Do we have to mark ALL of these, too?

ME: (Oh, dear - did anybody hear that? I'm sure they did. Pretty soon I expect to be dragged out of here in handcuffs!)

I raised my head and looked over the edge of the booth at T.'s ballot and told him, "Ok, just mark them the same way the back of your sample ballot shows". He started down the row, got to the end of the line and looked up at me - I put my finger on the next row and then on the spot on the sample ballot where that vote was cast. We continued to the end. There were three columns on the back. When we were done, T. wanted to know what to do with his sample ballot. I crumpled it into a ball and then, thinking better of it - I told him to just fold it back up and put it in his pocket. He smoothed it out and did so.

We put our official ballots in the privacy folder and went to the machine to cast our votes. T.'s ballot rolled into the opening. The lady gave him his "I VOTED" sticker and turned to me. I started to ask her for two stickers - but I held my tongue, smiled and took my one sticker and we exited the polling place. I felt better for having done my duty as a citizen. I was also grateful to have escaped censure for disrupting a polling place! I wonder what the fine would have been.

Bittersweet

2010-10-10T14:21:00.001-04:00

Today's date is one I usually mark quietly. Mother was born 10/10/10. At least that's the date she always celebrated as having been born. Then, when she thought she was about to turn 65, she contacted Social Security to find out how to document her age; not having a birth certificate. They offered the information on the types of proof they would accept, one being pages from a family Bible. Mom knew who had her family's Bible. She contacted the cousin and was able to get a photocopy of the page where her birth date was recorded. She sent it off to the Social Security folks who came back with the indisputable fact that the date had been written over and what had been Oct. 10, 1910 looked more like Oct. 10, 1908. She didn't care which date was used, as long as she was still able to draw her benefits. Until she died, she continued to celebrate the year as 1910.

Today, she would have turned 100 years.

Just a game?

2010-10-03T19:14:00.000-04:00

Football season is upon us. It is also along-side us, overhead, under foot and blocking the way to the ladies room at work. You cannot get away from it. Fans on all sides discussing their team - either the real one or the fantasy one, filling in statistics and reliving the weekend slaughter or gigantic win, depending on which team one favors. I work with a bunch of Gator fans. We won't be mentioning the name Alabama or the words Crimson, Roll or Tide in the same sentence on Monday. They know I root for the U of M when they play. Few know I'm a Tide fan. Gotta be! Mom being raised around Lanette and that area in 'Bama - right across the border from La Grange in Georgia. She took me to a game when I was younger. In the old Orange Bowl. On a cold night. The stands were filled with red clad visitors and rumbled with the chant, Roll Tide - accompanied by the arm roll. I get chills just recalling the awesome feeling.

Sorry, guys but when you're moaning about the loss of game on Monday... I will be smiling inside. Oh, yes.

Passing the stress test....

2010-09-15T21:59:00.000-04:00

When we were looking for a place to live after T. was declared 100 percent disabled by his VA doctors, there was a lot of stress. We were leaving familiar and striking out into the wild blue yonder without a parachute. Or something very like that, anyway. Once we decided the location and then found a house - I decided I needed something to relieve all that stress of moving, leaving family and friends and moving so far away. I settled on a little keychain dangler shaped like an elongated egg. It was white. There was a small plastic latch that let the top flip up to reveal the scene inside the egg. It was a farmyard scene with plastic green grass, a small fence and two black and white cows. One was large and the other small. Mother and calf. Whenever the lid was opened, the larger cow would move slightly back and forth to mimic eating. Small gears would grind and at last the mother cow would come to a stop and the cycle was complete. I would close the lid and open it again, time after time. The little bucolic scene recalled to me the peaceful country side we would be living in and the slower pace of life we could expect. I could almost feel the muscles unknotting in my neck and shoulders as I let the little keychain toy unwind. I played with it a lot. The clasp finally snapped and I couldn't close the lid any more. I sealed it with a rubber band so it wouldn't get broken. When I slipped the band off the egg, the little cows would work their tiny magic and I'd consciously relax and feel less harried with the demands on our lives.

The other day, I was coming up Rough Way and spotted a scene of cows eating near the roadway. Big cows. Little ones. One of the big cows was eating. That's when I realized - I hadn't played with my little keychain in a while - probably because I have the real thing living just across the road and - for the most part, those neck and shoulder muscles of mine have come unclenched while we were been making this little piece of the state into our home. I still miss friends and family but I do enjoy watching the squirrels run in the grass and butterflies dancing on the breeze. I enjoy the slight change of seasons - the trees shed leaves and at night you can see stars through the lacy structure of the underlying limbs. We might even get snow in our area. It has happened before and could again. There have been flurries. I'm sure I've seen them. And if there are flurries, isn't that a grand excuse to call out of work? I never learned how to drive in snow.

On This Date

2010-09-11T15:20:00.000-04:00

On this date in 2001 the towers fell and we watched. We were pierced through with the magnitude of the event. Tears streamed down. How can this happen, we asked. Nobody had an answer, except Usama. He said it was our fault. He lied.

It was in no way our fault that extremists listened to the voices of hate urging them on to do such damage in our country; striking at our our values and our very way of life. It is not our fault and I refuse to accept that this great land was or is in any way to blame for the extreme hatred that still spews. We open our doors to legal immigrants and offer help to the tired, the poor...the wretched refuse of those teeming shores. All others need to go to the back of the line and wait their turn.

I recall with pride the sights on television in those days in the aftermath of September 11. I saw people helping each other out of harms way. Newsmen reporting on the events with tears in their eyes. The funeral of a beloved priest who lost his life and all the other funerals that ended with the piper playing taps for a fallen hero - while a city came together to recover the lost and clear the rubble.

One image stands out in my mind from those days; a man standing beside the road with a cardboard sign in his hands, steadfastly holding it up for the passing cars to see. The sign said simply, Be Brave. Be Strong.

A message worth remembering.

Be brave.

Be strong.

Sights and Scenes

2010-09-06T07:46:00.000-04:00

T. and I were on the way into Wally-World to do our Saturday grocery shopping when I glanced up at a sign. Then my eyes travelled on towards the top of the building where the camera array was. I found myself looking around for Tippi Hedron!

Like a bad Hitchcock movie........

To Be or Not To Be...that is the nagging question

2010-08-26T21:27:00.000-04:00

Elder Daughter lives behind us, maybe 200 feet as the crow flies. Even if the crow has to walk and ask for directions, it's just not that far. Her domicile is a mobile home. We wanted to set up a network for the computer system that could include her home. That way, if it's late and the boys need to do some research for school, they can do it from the comfort of home. I just thought it would be neat to increase the range.

We spoke to one of The Computer Guys in the downtown area yesterday. They recommended going from a Wireless G to a Wireless N Router. They said it would have a stronger signal. (This is the same advice that Ranger gave - thank you Ranger!) So, I got the WSN2000 N Router from Netgear. Elder Daughter got home earlier than I did so she hooked it up. When I got home, the lights were on and the mini-tower was sitting on my desktop where the little Belkin used to dwell.

Elder daughter said the signal was stronger. Today, I noticed her sitting in the grass about halfway between our two places.I made out her netbook in her hands. I'm guessing that's where she got the best signal. At least we pushed the range that much farther out, but I don't want her to have to set up a halfway house in the back yard for her netbook and peripherals. So if anybody knows of a way to boost signal even more - all suggestions received will be gratefully entertained. Now, those suggestions that include using tinfoil will be entertaining, I suppose. But we're only going to implement the ones that don't require the use of tape and knitting needles. And don't even mention moving the mobile home 150 feet closer - !

Travel, Troubles, The Economy, Politics and Tea

2010-08-18T20:27:00.001-04:00

I was just ruminating on how busy life gets and how many changes can occur in just the 10 days since the last post to my weblog. In those 10 days we have had some major events happening to people in the family. Ranger and J have driven 900 miles, one way - to attend a memorial service. They were heading back home and got word that, someone in the family where they had been visiting fell and broke her femur.

Elder Daughter's car has developed a problem with overheating and they noticed a sheen in the water for the cooling system. Oil in the water indicates you are on the way to a blown engine if the problem isn't fixed. This was definitely not good news.

The Alabama Contingent had a problem with their car stopping and the two of them had to walk to a gas station and then return to the car, bringing gas. They had to wait a while before it would start again.

The economy has forced changes to the workplace and my office has gotten word that the entire group of all county employees will have to give up 3 furlough days to make up a shortfall in local government income this year. That means that 3 county holidays will be given without pay. The furlough days are going to fall on regular holidays - like Veteran's day and two others to be named. We would normally have the dates off anyway. But we would also normally be paid a regular salary for the holiday. Now, that's going to be our contribution to the county coffers. When asked to take part in the furlough, the county's Board of County Commissioners declined, saying that they are State funded and even if they did participate in the furloughs, it would only add about $1700.00 to the amount saved. Um hum.

In the same vein, our insurance plan is going to start charging for individual member plans. Heretofore, a single participant would have their policy paid for by the county. Additional family members on the plan were paid by the employee. Going solely with Social Security may be be my best option. Then I can drop the work plan. Um hum.

On the upside of all this - we are praying for the family member with the broken femur. God still is in control.

Ranger and J are taking a rest day and will be home soon, with God watching over them all the way.

Elder Daughter's car problems are being solved by a member of their church who sold them the car in the first place. They will shortly be driving a VW Bug of a newer variety and the old car will be repaired and then sold at auction. Word has it there will be a birthday celebrated in this family, soon.

The Alabama Contingent of the Family has solved her vehicle problems for the moment and is concentrating on birthday shopping for her child - soon to be a big 04. Word is there will be a party.

And, I still have a job. My county commissioner has retired, so we can't vote him out. He didn't agree to the furlough days anyway - so we might not have taken aim at his head after things settle down.

We have a strong Tea Party movement in the county and, while I'm not a member and have never attended a rally I may take to driving around with a teabag dangling from the rear view. That way if we pass a corner where there is a candidate holding a sign and waving for all he is worth - I can point to the teabag on the mirror and smile as I watch for a reaction. I just love living in a small town where you can get up close and personal with your politicians and gauge which way they jump.

Sunday Nights

2010-08-08T20:40:00.001-04:00

Funny how you can go along without watching a show for a while and then a new season starts and you suddenly find yourself enmeshed in finding out who will be the next Food Network Star or - in my case, the next Design Star. The winner will get his own show on HGTV. There were 10 contestants in the beginning. The show is down to the final four and I have the timer set for tonight's show. I have even been voting for my favorite. You can go online and vote for a favorite designer too. If you do, I urge you to support Courtland Bascon. No, really. Go. Vote. You can vote up to 10 times a day. This is one election you can influence and see it happening right then. Not unlike Chicago politics. Apparently nobody liked Nina - she has zero percent of the vote. And you can vote for a designer even though he has been removed from the competition by the judges. Sort of like when an election is held and the people elect a politician who has been run over by a bus and is no longer among the living. I'm telling you - this show is a slice of real life!

The judges are usually Vern Yip, Candace Olson and Genevieve Gorder. In the event one of the judges can't be on the show in a particular week, another HGTV star fills in. That's fair, right?

Last week, Alex got removed. He really wasn't standing up for his design choices. He needed to go.

The final four are Courtland Bascon, Emily Henderson, Casey Noble and Michael Moeller. I haven't liked Michael's attitude over the life of the show. He's kind of a cocky guy and was the main reason Alex got removed last week. After tonight, there will be three designers left. Even if Courtland gets removed, I'm going to keep right on voting for him as a fan favorite. Maybe he can get out of the 4 percent range. Come on, people - go over to HGTV and help push Courtland Bascon into a higher bracket.

Then we'll get busy on the mid-term elections in our own communities. Remember, Early Voting starts next week. Practice at HGTV for the real thing! Go Courtland!

Good points & bad points.

2010-08-01T19:05:00.000-04:00

I enjoy using my cell phone to access the social networking websites and to send messages back and forth to family and friends. Our parents kept in touch using a clunky black telephone with an uncurly handset wire and a wire that plugged into the wall, tethering them to the unit when they wanted to reach out and touch someone. It had a 3 digit number when I was small. That number went to 5 digits and sometimes the old telephone number, 27155 - floats to the top of my mental soup when I least expect it. By the time we moved from the house where I was raised - the phone number had enlarged to 7 digits. The cord had become curly at some point along the way. And, the phone came in many colors, to match your decor.

We never could have dreamed of all the improvements to come in telecommunications, much less the computer advancements that lay ahead. Nowadays, I can dial the phone from any place there is a signal. I carry it with me in the car, the grocery and the office.

With all these advancements, would you think someone could have standardized the keyboard shortcuts so that a person could move from the cellphone keyboard to a computer keyboard without having to think about things like punctuation and capitalization? Do you realize how many times I've been forced to backspace over my typing because I forgot I was on my computer instead of thumbing the phone. There are not shortcuts on a computer or typewriter that allow a quick double spacebar to place a period at the end of the sentence. It is a good idea on a cell phone but you have to actually do some work and put that little dot at the end of the computer generated line.

You can't just hold down a letter key until the capital letter comes up. You have to shift it into place.

The letter U doesn't replace the written word You.

You're is not shortened to U R. At least it isn't done that way in a formal message to the boss.

The person who comes up with a button that recognizes the keyboard and tells the computer to repair those lines of type will probably be otw to making a ton of $$$, imho!

I'm thinking

2010-07-27T20:19:00.000-04:00

So, I'm sitting 5 back in line to pick up a filled prescription - inching forward. Inching. Inch. Inch.

And it strikes me funny, the idea being to drive through quickly and efficiently and not waste time and gas in this line. And they have closed off one entire line to pick-up traffic. There's nobody dropping off.

DRIVE THROUGH. YOU'RE DOIN' IT WRONG!

Social networking is hard work!!

2010-07-18T14:58:00.002-04:00

Lots of the family is on Facebook and I saw a nephew in Houston who posted that he asked his wife what she wanted to do for the weekend. She said she wanted to go see the Corpse Flower at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. He asked her, "Huh?" That was my comment, too - except that I Googled Corpse Flower. I came up with news about the museum exhibit and all the excitement over this giant stinky flower from the rain forest and how crowds have been visiting the museum pretty much around the clock to see it whenever it opens. Or maybe to smell it. Sounds like fun, if you enjoy smelling rotten stuff

There was a link. Naturally I tried it. I checked back periodically. Finally I gave up and just sat at the monitor watching the people pass through the line in Houston and waited for Lois to bloom.

Lois. They have named her. You can buy buttons online that tout Lois. I didn't buy a button but I did keep the page open until 2:30AM at which time I came to my senses and went to bed. This morning Susan was online telling me she thought Lois looked like she had changed. Yes, I got her hooked as well.

Half the fun is waiting for Lois to unwrap her huge petals. The other half of the fun is reading the Tweets posted by visitors and people who work at the museum. One of the tweets may have been from someone called Ol Doc who lives somewhere in Florida.

Meet me in the middle...

2010-07-16T02:15:00.000-04:00

When we lived in the Subtropics, my sister and I were in houses situated close enough together for us to meet in the middle of the street to borrow a cup of sugar or a stick of margerine from each other. After T. was diagnosed with Guillain Barre, the doctor recommended we move from big town to a smaller area so he could live a quieter lifestyle. It was probably the hardest thing we had to do; move away from friends and family and all the dear things in our hometown. The places we shopped changed from big box stores to a single small-box and a miniature shopping center took the place of our major malls. Before we moved away, we thought nothing of hitting a couple of good sized malls on a shopping spree. Once we settled down in our new home, we took stock of how much change we had undergone. We went from living on a city lot to being in the middle of 3 acres, with another 12 acres across the road. Lots of grass to mow. Lots of trees around us that dropped pollen and then pecans in season. You couldn't hear your nearest neighbor and it got so dark at nights that we wouldn't step off the front porch for a long time. For one thing, you couldn't see that well and for another - what if a snake came by? Country living meant longer distances to go for the mail and a longer drive just to buy staples.

I think the biggest change for me, though - was moving a state's length from my best friend and dearest confidant. My sister.

Over the years, we've kind of gotten used to driving the 12 miles it takes just to get to the road that goes to the grocery store. And the yard light now seems sufficiently bright at night to hazard a step into the grass to set up the telescope for some stargazing. There are a lot more stars visible away from bright city lights.

Oh, but I do miss my own Elder Sister. We're as close at heart as when we were living just down the street from each other. I still share secrets with her and she with me. And the telephone company keeps us in touch when we just have to hear each other's voices. So, I will call tomorrow to wish her a Happy Birthday and give her our love on her special day. We'll have a good talk but - you know, there is a little piece of me that still looks at houses with ForSale signs out front and the thought crosses my mind how close it would be to where we live now.

Love you, Sis - have a Grand Birthday!

Oh my!

2010-07-11T12:09:00.003-04:00

I have this Facebook friend who keeps commenting on the people he sees at Walmart. He even posted a shot of one lady who was holding a shopping bag and who had laid her purse on the counter. Visible near her hand was a Crown Royal bag. Okay, so - there is a website available. For real.

It's called People of Walmart

Go ahead, click the red link. You know you want to!

DeSoto

2010-07-09T21:07:00.001-04:00

There are signs along some parts of the major East-West highway running through our fair city that say it is part of the DeSoto Trail. In other words it's the best guess as to the route taken by the famed explorer Hernando de Soto as he trekked through our region looking for gold and a way to reach China. It's not like Hernando carved his name on the trunk of an oak tree as he passed by.

There are a couple of places that use the name DeSoto to identify themselves. One is a lovely jewel of a lake situated behind the courthouse. The commissioners have added a fountain that jets up into the air and adds to the beauty. This is Lake DeSoto. In July, weather permitting, we set off fireworks over the lake. This year 25,000 people attended the fireworks on Saturday night.

During the Battle of Olustee, which occurs in February of each year, the Merrimack and the Monitor fight a pitched battle on the lake as part of the festivities. They are miniature versions of the ironclads and are radio controlled. I got a kick out of watching the mock fight. At least, I did the first time I watched. After that one battle, not so much.

One of the best namesakes of Senior de Soto is DeSoto Drug Store. It's an older building situated on our main street. It's a brick and glass-front building with wooden plank floors that have mellowed to a satin finish. Half the store is taken up by shelving for stock and the counter where you drop off your prescriptions. There are fitting rooms for prosthetic devices and a counter for bill paying. The other side of the building is given over to the restaurant. A long counter takes up one wall with round red topped stools that await the lunch crowd. The floor is taken up by tin-clad tables and chairs, around nine in all. Some years ago, the food served at DeSoto Drugs was among the best home cooked in town. Then the cook retired and the restaurant closed down. Of late, I had been by the storefront and noticed diners at the round tables in the window. Hmmm. Have to check it out sometime.

Sometime came today. Elder Daughter called to meet for lunch and we decided on DeSoto. It was an excellent choice. The sandwiches were better than before and accompanied by either fries or chips with a dill pickle. I had an egg salad sandwich, lightly toasted and topped with crisp lettuce. Elder Daughter and her sons had hamburgers and her husband had Reuben sandwiches. All agreed the meal couldn't have been better prepared or better tasting.

DeSoto Drugs, we missed you. I'm sure glad you're serving lunches again.

Wonder what their milkshakes taste like.

Happy 5th of July, too.

2010-07-05T11:45:00.000-04:00

We are now on day three of a 3-day weekend. This means the rest of the week will be four days and by Thursday we will be more than ready for Friday to dawn! We can dwell on memories of the 4th of July holiday to get us through the work week.

The flag pictured at the left flys over Fort Morgan, Alabama. The Alabama Group went there for their Fourth of July and I snagged the flag from Suse's Facebook page. I think it's an outstanding shot that sums up what the holiday is all about.

I rode with Elder Sister to Walmart on Saturday and she was telling me how she gave her horses some watermelon and their reactions to the treat. Bella - the one with the white on her face ate some and came up drooling, she thought it was so good. Savanah at the other end of the fence took a bite and belled out her lips and showed her teeth, which seems to be the horsie equivalent of, "Eeee-yuck!!" She did not like the taste at all. At all! I missed the whole show but maybe there will be an encore and we will catch the performance.

Meanwhile, it has turned into a cloudy day and a fine one for reflecting on our blessings; like the ones we have that come from living in a country that affords us the freedom to worship, live and work without fearing the government will batter down the doors and take us away for speaking out against injustice. We can lay our heads down at night, assured that we are living in the best nation in the world. We don't even have to wait until night to prove that blessing is true. We can take a nap right now - this very minute! I love it when a plan comes together, don't you?

Independance Day

2010-07-04T09:04:00.000-04:00

Happy Fourth of July

God Bless America

We might not be in Kansas -

2010-07-03T17:27:00.003-04:00

Ah, the learning curve sometimes gets sharp and there may be no information signs along the high speed internet.

Case in point: Elder Sister and her sons were at the house when I arrived from work yesterday-eve. They left shortly after I arrived with some Chinese take-out and we all sat to a meal in our separate households. Once dinner was a distant memory, I booted up the lil' red ACER and double tapped Internet Explorer. Instead of springing to attention and opening my home page, I was told that IE could not take me home because I was offline. I may be off the mark and off my rocker but I certainly didn't see how I could be offline. Wasn't my daughter just using you, snarled I!

Cursor just sat waiting.

I tried another website - and another. I made sure the check mark wasn't on under the Tools menu next to where it says "Work Offline". I tried a few other sites and then turned the ACER off and went to the desktop computer where I was rudely informed that I was off-line there, as well.

I check the router and antenna. All seemed as it should be. Both computers could see the router but neither was able to gain access and sail off into the Ethernet.

Frustrated, I chalked it up to weather conditions and - turning off all computers, I toddled off to watch me some Fox News and go to bed.

Next morning, I turned on the little red netbook and met the same conditions. Offline. I tried the desktop standby. Offline! WHAT? Am I never to surf the 'net again?

Oh, woe is me! What a whirl, what a whirl, I moaned, channeling the Wicked Witch from Oz. And my eye fell on the instruction manual for the Wildblue modem. Vaguely I recalled a discussion about DNS addresses and that their being missing from the modem meant it couldn't go online.

Same thing as Offline, eh?

What's the fix, what's the fix, Dorothy, I asked! Dorothy snickered rudely and suggest I try reading the manual.

Three minutes of reading later, I pulled the modem's power plug and waited the requisite one minute before I plugged the power back in. Two minutes later the modem lights clicked three times and twinkled back on, I tapped the IE icon. My home page opened like it had been there all the time; just hiding behind some curtain. We zoomed off like a hot air balloon in an updraft - high over the information highway.

This must be why they call all those helpers that install various and sundry software - - - Wizards?

A New Location

2010-06-29T22:57:00.001-04:00

I have a clunky desktop computer running XP in the family room. I was only able to access the internet by dial up - until I slipped on my running shoes and jumped aboard high speed internet. Still I was limited to the desktop in the one location. Younger Daughter in Alabama purchased a router with antenna and pretty much set up a home network for me which did little good as I didn't yet have a fast connection. We learned it was impossible to complete the setup without getting off dial up. The ethernet plug had no place to go.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Wildblue set us up with a dish in the yard and a modem on the desk. Now we were talking! Once again my hopes rose for that router that was sitting on the floor in a box. Maybe this time - maybe this time we could break free from the confines of the chair at the desktop and boot up the little red ACER and actually move about the house in complete computing abandon!

Elder daughter's husband came over one evening and handily hooked the wires and plugs and antenna in their proper order and I turned on the ACER. It could see the router. It seemed blind to the internet connection.

Tonight, Elder Daughter was at the desktop working on Facebook. Her husband came in and wondered if I had ever been able to connect to the Internet on the Netbook? I said no, that I had unplugged the router in frustration. He set things back in place and asked me to try it again. So,I did. I turned on the lil' red ACER and waited for the icons to load. What's that? A tiny symbol of a computer with signal bars.

SIGNAL bars, I tell you!

Google popped up for my home page! McAfee advised that the site was safe and we zoomed off on the information highway. My first stop was my weblog. This entire post has been done on the cute lil' red ACER! For the first time - and probably not the last, I have been sitting at the dining table while online.

What a heady feeling this is. Hoo-yah!

We had a great visit.....

2010-06-26T14:49:00.002-04:00

We live about an hour and a half away from Brother and his family but hardly ever see them, except for weddings. We will go to one of his children's weddings at the drop of a hat. Or a wedding veil. We try to celebrate the milestones like birthdays and anniversaries with a card or a call or a belated wish. Most often, mine fall into the latter category.

Ron has been saying that he wanted to try and meet us for lunch one of these days and on the 18th of the month, we all made it to Cracker Barrel. Well, all but Tom. I got out of work to see Ron and Alicia for lunch and a stroll around the gift shop.

Afterwards, I thought to myself - why not all go to the house and visit with T. All it took was a phone call to my boss to ask if I could take the rest of the day off and to my amusement, the Lieutenant didn't say to go ahead and take the time. He asked me WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MRS. VINING! Then, he said yes, of course - take the rest of the day. See ya tomorrow.

We had a nice long visit and I thoroughly enjoyed being with Ron and Alicia. Rain clouds gathered and Ron said they had to get home to allow their dog out into the yard. She was in the house and I guess older kidneys can't take the strain as well as a younger pup's can. Isn't that true of us all? As we gathered on the porch for group shots of the family (Rich, Nathan, Matthew, Tommy, Ron, Alicia and me - available on Alicia's Facebook page in the Lake City visit album) I snapped off a shot of Brother. You will notice the eyes are shut and a slight grin lights the lips. Other than that little flaw, it's a good picture for an image taken with a cell phone. There is a fix, though. Take a brown marker and make two dots on the eyelids and imagine how nice a picture this could have been, save for the one slight glitch. Why does he DO that!

'Cause he can.

Alicia was a much easier subject as she stood in the yard checking her camera images - I sort of snuck around behind Ron and Rich and took a quick picture. And she didn't close her eyes. Perhaps that's the way to take Ron's photograph next time. Sneak it in!

The Girl Who Kicked.....

2010-06-08T21:53:00.001-04:00

I finished the Stieg Larrson book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest a couple of days ago. I have been digesting the story ever since and have decided that it was as well written as the first two and a fitting ending to the trilogy. It has to be because - unless Larrson's girlfriend has some trick up her sleeve to overcome the family threats of lawsuits, there will probably not be a fourth in the saga.

I saw a review on Sunday in which the writer didn't like the third book. She must not recall how book two ended with Lisbeth lying wounded and Blomkvist tending to her injuries while calling for help to come. This book picked up more or less in the same spot. Or very near. You need to bring the other two novels to mind while reading this one but things are explained and flow along quite nicely. Salander is as sullenly resourceful as ever. I found myself cheering for her in one scene that was set in an abandoned property, towards the end of the book. I was sorry to see it end - and if there ever is another book in the offing, you can see which direction it might take from the ending of the Hornet's Nest.

I recommend this book! It was worth the wait for publication.

-- Ol-Doc-dot-Blogspot, special to the Blogosphere.

And another review.....

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" is a rewarding entertainment, and a satisfying solution to the mysteries that surround Lisbeth Salander. But the enchantment of the Millennium Trilogy is not what Salander suffers, but how she triumphs.

-- Katherine Dunn, special to The Oregonian

I like to take polls. Honest!

2010-06-08T19:58:00.000-04:00

I found the below poll online and decided to take it. I also inadvertantly signed up for a news website but that's okay. There's an opt-out if I get tired of the inbox filling up each day. I won't tell you which one, but there was only one question that my answer differed from the majority. The poll results had graphics in the form of a chart but it didn't copy well so I set italics to indicate the majority response. If you really like the presidential handling of the oil spill in the Gulf, don't read down any further. If you kind of believe that Chicago Politics are at play in the handling of the spill and treatment of BP Oil Company - you may be interested to see how many others in this poll agree with you.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Poll starts below _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Thank you for taking the poll: BP Spill - Obama's Katrina?. The poll results are listed below.

Special note: The poll results may include data for questions that were not included on the poll that you took.

BP Spill - Obama's Katrina? (156,186 Respondents)

What is your opinion of President Obama?

Favorable
46,554 (29.81%)

Unfavorable
109,633 (70.19%)

Do you believe President Obama was right in letting BP manage the oil spill disaster?

Right
72,241 (46.79%)

Not right
82,137 (53.21%)

How would you rate President Obama's handling of the disaster?

Excellent
18,926 (12.15%)

Good
21,128 (13.56%)

Fair
12,793 (8.21%)

Poor
102,924 (66.07%)

Do you believe BP's political donations to the Obama campaign have been a factor in how the President handled the matter?

Yes, it played a role.
98,340 (64.04%)

No, it didn't play a role.
55,232 (35.96%)

Have the media been much more lenient on President Obama than on President Bush with the Katrina disaster?

Yes, more lenient on Obama.
111,421 (71.87%)

No, it's been about the same.
43,609 (28.13%)

In the 2008 election between McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden, whom did you vote for?

McCain-Palin
85,293 (55.80%)

Obama-Biden
44,522 (29.13%)

Other
23,039 (15.07%)

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Video link from BP

2010-06-01T00:15:00.001-04:00

I know some folks who live on the Alabama Gulf Coast or within driving distance of the beaches there. They (and we) are following the gushing well on the bottom of the gulf with heartsick hope that the well will be capped before more damage is done to the environment - sea life, bird life, people in the area who make their living from the waters. Some of us are so angry at BP that we're not using the gas stations - although I reminded a family member tonight that the people who hold the local franchises are not to blame for the disaster in the Gulf and to boycott their businesses only hurts the local economy and not the parent company. Still, it's hard to support the huge conglomerate that took shortcuts in safety and basically caused a rig to go down with loss of life and a disaster the likes of which none of us has seen before. Tonight, the company is trying another method of capping the well... called a Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP), it is supposed to replace the riser pipe on the bottom of the gulf with a top portion of a Blow Out Prevention (BOP) package that will allow the oil to be pumped to the surface and loaded into tankers. It's not a cap but a way to divert the oil to the surface and recover it. The two Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV's) are operating to perform the procedure. They are also sending video feeds to the surface. I found this one and there are other sources out there. The Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska is a minor ripple in the environment, compared to what's going on right now. Pray for the well to be under some control and that before a hurricane sends the pollution ashore Kevin Costner can bring his brother's invention to the Gulf and help alleviate the situation. Otherwise, we are all in a world of hurt!

In Memory....

2010-05-31T09:53:00.000-04:00

I don't recall WWII; the war I was born into. I do remember the fighting in Viet Nam, Korea and Iraq. The Bible says there shall be wars and rumors of wars in the last days. We commemorate the fallen in all the wars, back to the Civil War, The Revolutionary and beyond. We have family members who were soldiers in all those wars. Yesterday as we sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic, in church - I thought about the age of that song and the fact that our great grandfather probably heard it and may even have sung it. It is a link to the past in so many ways. We must remember the history of the country and of our friends and family. In Viet Nam, the first time that war became a personal thing to me was when Mom told me that a childhood friend named Danny had a brother who died in 'Nam. Here is a link to the Viet Nam Wall Memorial in Washington, DC. You can find Wayne Hutchinson listed here from Miami. Say a prayer for him and for all the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for us each day.

A Nose by any other name is stuck in a book....

2010-05-28T21:57:00.002-04:00

The folks at Amazon sent me an email and a link to UPS so I could check the status of my pre-ordered book by Stieg Larrson. It's the third in the Millennium Trilogy and I ordered it way back beyond the beginning of the year. Well, maybe just after. It was a good deal off the new-book price and I already owned books 1 and 2, courtesy of Walmart. I planned on checking the website to see where book 3 might be spending the night but when I got home yesterday, there was a brown box on the dining table where our new mail lands. Ripping it open, I did an internal happy dance. There in all it's shining glory was The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Um, I think I will see you on the other side of the weekend - or when I decide to come up for air.

And baby makes three

2010-05-25T21:09:00.001-04:00

I work with a young woman who has been in waiting these nine long months. T. and I attended her wedding. It was a very special occasion where the whole audience laughed when the preacher told her brand new husband, "You may now kiss the bride." and he reared back and wiped his mouth with the back of his arm and both hands.

They had a honeymoon, came back to work and after a while nature took its course and they had a baby girl. They had thought to only have the one child and so the husband, we'll call him Clint (since that might even be his middle name.) had a little outpatient procedure done that the doctor said would guarantee no more children. After a time, they had an opportunity to adopt an older child. It was a boy. His circumstances were such that he might have been in foster care for some time except for the two adults taking a decision to expand their family. Now there were the four of them. A perfect number for a family nowadays. The children grew and the parents overcame the normal things a family deals with. And then, the young woman had a startling revelation. She showed signs and symptoms, and when she took a test, lo and behold - she was with child. Clint went roaring back to his doctor who did some testing and discovered the previous out patient procedure had, uh for sure - come un-undone.

The young woman and her husband may have gulped a little. After all, having three children when you only planned for two would take some adjustment. Insurance will be more expensive, to say nothing of food and laundry bills. The pregnancy went well, despite some problems. When she went home on Monday, she said, "See you tomorrow, unless ... "

Today this young couple gave birth to a girl child who weighed a little over 8 pounds. She is lovely on her Facebook picture. Her daddy looks so proud holding her for her first daughter and father photograph. Their Facebook friends' messages of congratulations were at 24 and growing the last time I checked.

It strikes me that this is the same size family as our Mom and Dad had. And in the same ratio, 2 girls and a boy. Now, when they go to a restaurant and the hostess says, reservations for a party of five... the party of five is all their own sweet family. May their joys multiply!

And may that un-named doctor be right this time around!

Not exactly your game of Pong.

2010-05-21T22:37:00.003-04:00

I saw on Google News where it is the 30th anniversary of Pac Man.

Wow, who keeps track of these things! And to celebrate, you could play a game right on the World Wide Web, within the Google logo. It wasn't just the familiar colorful letters as per usual. It was a game of Pac Man with the playing field around the name Google. I don't know how they did it but I took full advantage of the offering. I played Pac Man. Right on the computer at work, where access to almost everything fun, exciting or family oriented is blocked on the server.

It was just like stepping back to those early gaming days. I felt giddy, like a kid who is getting away with fooling mom and dad.

I shared the information with the one other person who happened to be in the office at the time. Pretty soon the Pac Man theme was wafting across the office and I heard the other player's voice over the music. She said,"Neat!"

It takes so little to satisfy, sometimes. Thanks, Google!

Yeah, but would you drink the water?

2010-05-16T15:38:00.005-04:00

We got up early and I did T's medicine doses for the coming week. While the coffee was brewing, I turned on the television and happened to catch a spot on the Fox and Friends, Sunday show about a product manufactured by a private company that they claim will fix the problem of the oil spewing up in the Gulf and heading towards our pristine gulf shoreline. It's called Smart Sponge and can be manufactured in any shape and size required. He held up a small piece that looked like a slightly over sized popcorn kernel. In fact, he told the viewers - this was the "popcorn configuration". He proceeded to demonstrate the product with a vial of clear water and a smaller one of motor oil. He poured the oil into the water, capped and shook the vial and then showed the resulting mixed liquid. He held up a second vial that was packed with the Smart Sponge and placed this vial, which had an opening at the bottom, over a third vial. He then poured the mix of motor oil and water onto the Smart Sponge vial. The motor oil stayed in the top vial while clear water ran out the bottom of the middle vial into the empty one at the bottom. He claimed that the product had been demonstrated to the companies that deal with oil spill clean-up. Nobody is using the Smart Sponge. The talant on Fox and Friends wanted to know why not.

I kind of want to know, too. It is apparently in use in drainage cleanup systems and other applications in the country.

The Stars at Night are Big and Bright -

2010-05-15T16:27:00.005-04:00

Aunt Ranger called them the Astronomers.

The telescope was a big hit with the grandsons here and we just sent the other one to the Alabama contingent this morning. I wish I could be there to see the reaction! It was most satisfying to see the boys faces when they opened the box and then hovered as their mother assembled the lenses and finder scope. I'm telling you, sometimes WOOT outdoes itself on the offerings presented.

Helping hands

2010-05-14T22:20:00.005-04:00

By this time, most folks are aware of the tragic explosion and sinking of the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that has left barrels of oil spewing into the water. Our daughter in Alabama says there are clots of the stuff coming ashore on the beaches. It makes us sad to think of all the ruin that may be floating toward shore.

People in our town are wanting to help and not quite knowing how. But yesterday there was an article in the local paper about the beauty salons that are collecting hair to donate to help create the booms that are extended along the shoreline to try and keep the oil from coming in.

This morning we woke to another article about the alpaca farms in the area that are collecting fleece that they will donate in order to try and soak up the spill.

There on the cover of the newspaper was a picture of a 9 year old cousin feeding a female alpaca owned by the Suwannee Valley Alpaca farm in White Springs. The alpaca was freshly shorn according to the article and her fleece will be donated along with that of other animals in the herd. Businesses from this area are sending human and dog hair along with panty hose to help in the effort to hold back the oil with the booms. This farm will donate 200 pounds of hair.

It gives one a feeling of pride to see our area step up and give so generously in this environmental emergency and to know our family members are contributing as well.

So the phone rings and.....

2010-05-14T14:52:00.005-04:00

So, I'm sitting at the computer and the telephone rings and I pick it up and it's for T. I called him to take the call and he did. And, I'm still online and surfing the Internet.

In the good old days, when the phone rang, I wouldn't have heard anything because I was using a dial-up connection to access the Internet and y'all wouldn't have gotten through to the house. The good old days were about 20 minutes ago!

Some things change for the better. Some things are amazing. There is now a satellite dish on a post outside my side door. And a modem on the desk beside the CPU. Green lights flashing away...loading information up. Loading information down. I really need to figure out how to hook the Belkin router into the system so I can move around the house while I surf. How cool is all this technology.

Very!

Hi Speed WOOT, Mon!

2010-05-13T15:07:00.005-04:00

Wow, it's been a while since the last post. We're blocked at work from several websites and most blogs are among the verboten. We have been told that once the server and entire new system is in place in all areas - the IT guy will go around and restore select sites. We can't even access Facebook and that is in use by some of us in an official capacity. It has been a major bummer, believe me. I feel cut off from humanity and the news and just about every amusing website on the 'net. Guess that is because, like Popeye, 'I yam whats I yam!'

The lack of contact with outside weblogs and even my personal email has brought me to the brink of despair at work. At home, my sloooow dial-up is just maddening and I made a decision to do something about it. I called our satellite company and signed up for their first level of high speed satellite service. The technician is supposed to be here on Friday between 8 and noon to install the dish, modem and cables that will allow me to jump into the fast lane with the rest of the world. Of course, the service guy may be running on a different kind of time than I am. I have taken the entire day off. I will call later in the afternoon to confirm that I do indeed have an appointment. The company has been known to schedule a call and then have it evaporate right off their screen - leaving no trace. If by some miracle we do get set up in the morning hours - I could go back to work... nah, I can't see myself doing that. I can see me surfing as fast as my fingers will take me to those sites that have always been slow to load. Places where I have sat and waited for minutes for a NASA Hubble picture to scroll down the screen. I may even set up a wireless home network and boot up the netbook in the living room. Look, Ma! No cords!

Oh, wow -I need to go work on some strong passwords!

Retold by permission.

2010-04-18T21:11:00.006-04:00

Elder Daughter and her 2 sons had to go down and have Matthew fitted for a tux. He was ring-bearer in a wedding; his mother was Matron of Honor. I went along for the ride after I got off work on Friday. Matt had gone with his school to a zoo in another city and had purchased a cute little stuffed animal; a monkey with a red body, arms and legs - a grey tail and a flesh toned wise little monkey face. The thing was posed so that it would balance on Matt's shoulder as easily as it would sit on a table. He took the monkey along in the car. We went to the shop where the tux was fitted and once finished there, we went to McAllister's for dinner. Matt took his monkey inside and it sat on the table during our meal. Afterward we all piled back in the car to make the return trip home. I was feeling mellow from dinner.

The boys sat on the bench seats while their mother and I chatted quietly. We were on the interstate heading north and things outside were getting that lovely sunset glow when it happened. Matt began to whack on the little stuffed monkey, pretending it had done something to displease him. He continued to thwack the thing repeatedly - until his mother, tiring of hearing the noise told him sharply, " Stop spanking your monkey, Matthew!"

That's all it took. I snorted, then giggled, then guffawed and couldn't stop laughing. Realizing what she'd said, my daughter joined me and then the boys started laughing along as people do while Matt kept asking, "Why is everybody laughing" and Nathan finally managed to wheeze out, "I....don't....know!"

We probably covered five miles, laughing crazily, before I was able to control the helpless gales and wipe the tears from my eyes. I did think to ask Elder Daughter if she minded if I blogged the incident.

2010-04-11T18:43:00.004-04:00

Spring is lovely in North Central Florida this year. The Dogwoods are full of blossoms and the azaleas are outstanding; witness the exhibition just outside my kitchen window.

The downside to all this beauty is the pollen. It's everywhere. it covers the back patio. It covers the car. It covers the ribbons under the car. It makes one sneeze and the sinus feel full.

I guess we have to put up with such things to enjoy this spectacular Spring.

Maybe there will be a bumper crop of pecans, too. One can hope for such a response in repayment for the allergic snuffling and goose-like nose blowing of the local inhabitants. 'Cause one day all these flowers will wither and drop and the memories of this gorgeous spring weather will reside in the glow of the pecans nestling in bags in the freezer.

Wait for it - wait for it. Was that a plink on the tin roof?

How much information is on this highway, anyway!

2010-03-23T17:12:00.003-04:00

At work today, I heard some of my co-workers talking about a website that gave a startling amount of information - for free. If you want more detailed information, you have to choose a plan and pay your money. Whichever way you chose, you go to www.spokeo.com and put in a name, a phone number or an email address. The information that is free includes the person's address and a down toward the bottom of the page, picture of their home. I guess it's from Google Earth but it was amazing to me to hear the folks I work with exclaiming, "That's MY HOUSE!" as they put in their names and hit Enter.

So, I tried it. Sure enough, there was my address. Scanning down the page there was a red flag in the middle of a bunch of trees. I thought, humph - that's not my house! Then I scanned out. And a little further away from the treed property there was an overhead of our house! Ulp. Someone knows a whole bunch about us, guys. Try it. Some of the homes I was able to see were taken from street level. You can apparently run - but you can't hide!

Pets Mart

2010-03-18T13:05:00.009-04:00

We have a pet shop here in town where we buy our parrot mix and turtle food, often on a Saturday while we're doing our grocery shopping and other errands in town. The shop also stocks mice and rats for feeding snakes and I have been known to bring one home for Elder Daughter's little pet. When you enter the shop, there is a rather large and obvious Dinosaur looming to the side. It may not be noticible unless you enlarge the picture - but the middle front tooth on the lower jaw is missing. Instead of the white fang, there is a hole in the jaw. I hadn't noticed it really.

Until Elder Daughter mentioned the tooth and told me she was there when it happened.

Turns out, the dino-dentist is a member of our family and holds the dual position of being her youngest son. He was just touching the tooth, happened to pull on it and it went flying right out of the dino-mouth and landed at some remote location. The whereabouts is not known. The area was briefly scanned. The tooth wasn't spotted. She and the boys hustled out of the store. They periodically return to shop and each time, the gap in the jaw tempts youngest son to touch the space and quietly remind his mother that he was the one.....

Further Deponent Sayeth Not.

You have to laugh, or else.....

2010-03-11T13:30:00.011-05:00

Things sometimes get interesting around our house. Especially when it comes to T.'s memory problems. I'd like to share some things that have brought me to the edge of patience - until I take a look from a different angle. Then I may laugh about it.

There's something called Perseverating -which is when you keep dwelling on one thing. You talk about it over and over. It could be as innocent at the next NASCAR race scheduled or as complicated as the directions from our house to Wal-Mart. You just keep repeating such things until they are settled in your mind. Or until you pick up on the verbal edge in your listener's responses. Regardless of the event - we eventually wind up on the proper television channel or else in the parking lot at Wally World.

Hoarding.
Apparently we are short of canned cold drinks in the whole world and can't allow them to be out in plain view in the kitchen floor. We tend to shove them in a line against the hutch and cover them over with a layer of plastic bags.
Out of sight, out of mind? Maybe.
Unwilling to share? Maybe.

Whatever the reason, we have wound up with 6 cases of Sam's Club soda hiding in plain sight and 3 packs of frozen pancakes (72 total) shoved into the freezer. I need to cross stuff off T.'s list when I know we absolutely don't require more.

Losing things.

We have missed the following items and searched for them for extended periods of time.

Mobile Phone #1.

Mobile Phone #2 that replaced #1.

AAA Batteries

The hood release location on the Buick

The door to the side yard.

Laundry detergent.

All items were subsequently found; some requiring repairs. (the hood release quit working after being jerked upwards several times. The auto repair fixed it for us)

The latest item that went missing last weekend was a white dustpan. T. couldn't recall where he put it last and searched the kitchen cabinets, the bedroom, the utility room and under the parrot cage. He did mention that he might have taken it across to the barn and left it there. I showed him a red dustpan that clips onto a red-handled broom and stays in the kitchen. The red pan wasn't what he wanted. It was the white one, the one he always uses.

Yesterday, Elder Daughter had come over to use my computer and I got a text message from her. T. had found the white pan. He brought it over from the barn and hung it up in the family room. On a nail. Which he had banged into the mantle of the fireplace. When I came home that evening, the first sight to greet me was a white dustpan hanging beside the entry door - swinging from the mantle. T. took it down - not without my strong urging.

We will dedicate a prong from the over-the-back-door coat rack to hanging the white dustpan. You can hardly see the nail hole in the mantle.

Enexpected

2010-03-05T19:21:00.005-05:00

You plan your life and live it and then one day you reach the age where you can see retirement over the hill. You think how nice it would be to rent an RV and travel a bit. Or take a cruise to nowhere. And then something happens to change your plans.

T. has been complaining of his memory getting bad and had mentioned it to his doctor at the VA. Doctor sloughed it off as normal ageing. Every body's memory gets worse and they get older, he said. Still, after complaining and getting nowhere - I went along on one of T.'s doctor visits. I expressed how much the memory problem worried us both and the doctor gave a sort of standard test right in the office. He told T. Draw a clock. Put the numbers where they belong. Draw the hands at 10 to 5. T. couldn't follow the directions. The doctor referred us to a psychologist at the local VA. She was very pleasant and after her battery of tests, she talked to both of us in her office. She had found some areas that concerned her. T. was losing some of the skills in areas of the brain that enable a person to put things together in a limited amount of time. Or figure out how to combine simple irregular shapes to resemble a square or a triangle. She referred us to the VA in Gainesville but cautioned us that it could take some while to get an appointment because there had been personnel turnover and they were backed up.

We went home to wait it out. Time passed and Christmas and New Years came and went. Still no Gainesville notice of appointment. T. had to go to the eye clinic - which he did by himself. He lost the car after the visit ended and had to have the guard drive him around until he spotted the Saturn in the lot. He drove home with his eyes blurred. A couple of days after that he complained that his eye was burning. I looked and the left lid was swollen up. He said he hadn't rubbed it - all the while he stood there rubbing the lid. It hurt and swelled nearly closed. My son in law drove T. to the VA to see his primary doctor for his regularly scheduled visit and I think that's when the doctor realized that something was indeed wrong with his memory. As it was described to me, T. stood in the waiting room, explaining that he was there to see his Dr - Dr Ngo, and all the while he was speaking to the gentleman but didn't recognize him. Because my son-in-law pastors at a local church and the doctor's nurse-receptionist attends that church, she was able to tell the doctor that he could rely on Richard's veracity and that what the family was experiencing wasn't just in their imagination. There really was a problem. Dr. Ngo gave T. some antibiotic salve for his eye and said he wanted to see him back if the swelling continued. The salve worked.

A week later, I received a phone call from the social worker at the Gainesville VA. She said they had been contacted by our VA and had scheduled an appointment. She explained how the visit would go and told me that the neuro-psychologist would speak with T. and me and then after that, she and I would go to another office and T. would go through testing with the doctor. They had scheduled out a block of 3 hours for the whole visit. The appointment was set for 2 days before T.'s birthday.

Came the day of the VA visit, I drove to Gainesville. T. said he didn't know the way; didn't think he could find the VA - it had been so long since he had driven there. We met one of our daughters at the hospital and while T. was testing, she and I sat in the social worker's office and spoke of how things might change and of what steps we needed to start taking to prepare. She gave us a lot of good resources for caregivers and set up a medical power of attorney for T. to sign once she found out that he hadn't signed anything detailing how he might want to be treated in the event of a major illness. She said she believed he could sign it and understand it but if we waited too long, he might not be able to make his wishes known and without a power of attorney, nobody else could act in his stead.

When T. and the doctor finally came down from testing, they sat in the social worker's office and the doctor got right to the diagnosis. She didn't pull any punches telling us that she found T. to have mild to moderate Dementia/Alzheimer's. She was straight-forward and matter-of-fact in her diagnosis and for that, I was strangely grateful. She and the social worker gave us business cards and she recommended another medication that may be of help in holding the memory loss at a stable point - she said to see about getting Dr. Ngo to prescribe it. He hasn't yet. I will be calling him back to see if he has done anything about setting things up so that T. can start on this medication along with the one he is currently taking. The social worker explained things to T. and he initialed then signed off on the power of attorney.

We had lunch after the doctor visit. Sarah paid for Olive Garden and we had a lovely meal there. After we were done in Gainesville, I drove back home marvelling at how pretty the countryside was. I have always liked to drive through scenic landscapes.

I went to work the next day and thought I'd be fine but cried every time I talked with anyone about the diagnosis. I was just an overflowing bucket of tears - talking to Sarah. Talking to Susan. Talking to my boss. Talking to some of the secretaries. I don't know how I made it through that day. Susan called my brother and sister for me. I told her I just couldn't do it right then, that I knew I'd break down. She offered to make the calls and has been a real rock of support.

Sarah and Rich and their two boys helped us celebrate T.'s 74th birthday on the Friday. I took everyone to Applebees and in the course of the meal I may have compared the lunch in Gainesville and T. said he didn't recall going to lunch at Olive Garden. I was a little upset but Sarah took it in stride - she said it had been a long day for him and he was tired in the afternoon, so that may be part of the reason he didn't recall the event.

My brother and sister are major support givers - I know I can call on them for a sympathetic ear and a virtual hug in time of stress.

For right now, things are going pretty well. I'm still working and T. isn't driving by himself. We just celebrated our 36th anniversary and there's a quarter sheetcake on the dining table waiting for grandchildren to take another slice.

We still laugh together at the same things. I showed T. the bruised spots on my left arm where my purse slid down - I asked him did he get marks like that from banging into stuff. He said he did and proceeded to point to brown spot after brown spot - in a kind of "I dare you to disagree" manner.

I told him, "Those aren't bruises - they're age spots." He said, "They're what?" I said, "They're age spots. You know, they're those marks that - when you connect them -they say you're just so dad-blamed old!"

He ducked his head, but I saw the grin before he hid his face.

Finally done with that curve swerve!

2010-02-16T11:00:00.005-05:00

At last, the county Public Works department has finished straightening out the S curve in our road by removing a tree. They responded to a neighbor's complaint about a pecan tree that has been successfully dodged by drivers on the road for at least the last 15 years. The neighbor's contention was that the tree presented a hazard. It was really a blessing in disguise because it caused folks to slow down a little as they zoom zoomed along. I have only seen one person nearly come in contact with the old tree and that was years ago.. It was a female who was driving a station wagon. She was going a little too fast and a wheel caught in soft dirt causing her car to spin around in the road. She came to rest with her headlights facing the tree while her tail lights pointed towards our house. She never drove the road that fast again.

After the guys from Public Works cut the tree down to a mere stump, a contractor came out and dug the roots out and pulled the stump from the ground. He also up pulled our concrete boundary marker and the white PVC pipe that was next to the marker. He left the marker and pipe lying where they fell. T went across the road and put the marker back in the hole.

In a few days, the county again came out and spread black dirt from the beginning of the curve to the end, along the whole length of our property. Ugly? Oh, it was ugly. We are so used to seeing the light brown dust of the road that the extreme blackness was just hurtful to the eyes.

A day or so after that, the big trucks came back and began dumping lime rock on the road - right on top of the black dirt. That would be okay, if they had merely laid down a thin layer. Nope, they mounded the lime rock up at least 6 or 8 inches above the ground level. They didn't allow for a driveway slant or any place for a driver to pull off the road. I think they're waiting for us to drive our cars and compress the lime rock to a level that is easier to manage. Right now, we have to go uphill to get on the road from the driveway. Forget coming off the road into the drive. We find ourselves slowing down to make the drop-off so we won't get a flat tire.

If the road doesn't compress much, maybe they'll bring one of those roller machines to run back and forth and flatten the lime rock enough for a person to come and go safely.

Oh, yes - and now, instead of a lovely old tree at the curve - we have a few white posts with yellow reflectors that line the road so that drivers will know to turn the wheels. Oh, well. We can only hope for seedlings along the roadside that will eventually grow into Pecans. Or Oaks. I'd take a Mighty Oak right about now.

I can still recall how good "normal" felt....

2010-02-08T12:04:00.004-05:00

Just a musing that floated up from the recesses of the old brain. I recall after Hurricane Andrew how good it felt just to get a newspaper delivery. Everything was wiped away and we had no lights or water and every tree in the back yard was blown down. Still, there was the paper, lying on the walk in its plastic bag. It was such an uplifting feeling - something in the city still worked the way it was supposed to.

Can you imagine how much more hopeful a feeling for New Orleans that their team gave them the immense gift of a Super Bowl win! Way to go!!!

What they didn't get....

2010-02-05T13:29:00.005-05:00

I took the photograph this morning. It kind of looks like a war zone with the stump as the only casualty. The supervisor told me that the work crew is finished and now we are waiting on another contractor to come and remove the stump. This is a pecan tree. You can hardly pull the seedlings from the ground after the root has established. They are deep rooted things - they'll crack off at the middle rather than uproot themselves. I want to see this contractor. I wonder if he owns a big blue ox - possibly named Babe?

Getting a blow by blow account

2010-02-03T12:53:00.006-05:00

Well, today is the day to say goodbye to the pecan tree across the road. The County Public Works came this morning and the crew started cutting the limbs from the top down. They will take out the middle at some point today and then dig out the stump. At the end of the day, we will have a smooth place on the road where this pecan provider and squirrel haven has stood for some years now. This graceful old tree has been standing by the roadside for at least the fifteen years we've lived in this house and from the size of it when we moved in, it was there ten or fifteen years before that. Hey, this tree could have been a tender green shoot when T. and I were first married. I want to be the one to see the first squirrel jump from our trees to the ones across the road - they used to sail between the near branches and move from tree to tree over vast distances. Not going to work next time.

The near branch from that tree that any squirrel planned to land on will be just a distant memory on the way to the landfill. Pecan wood burns well so some of the work crew may take a limb or two home for the fireplace. Everyone who found out the tree was coming down has expressed dismay over the loss. All except the neighbor who sent in the letter of complaint. We know who it is and he will never get another bag of our cracked pecans. Nor will he be invited over to harvest the nuts from the ground. This guy, who thinks it's better to smite a tree just to get a little further look down the road (rather than moving his driveway) - doesn't deserve pecans.

I don't know. Is that too harsh?

I has Meds!

2010-01-26T20:11:00.005-05:00

I had and kept a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon. Lady A. R. N. P. took one look at me and proclaimed, " You don't feel good. I can tell by your eyes!" She proceeded to prescribe some strong antibiotics and a short course of 'roids. All to the good. I picked the medicines up and took them. I feel better already. When I say, "I am woman, hear me roar...." maybe the word roar won't morph into an imitation of a chainsaw hitting heartwood. Ro-rrruh. 'Scuse me. I didn't mean to cough in your face.

I came home this afternoon to find T. sitting on the front porch with Pastor from our church. He had come visiting to see how we were feeling. T. handed me a card from our County Commissioner who had stopped by to see if we would mind the County Public Works crew coming and cutting a huge pecan tree across the road from the house. It is all on the county's land - our boundary marker is in the ground behind the tree. I have halfway been expecting the tree to be taken down. It was just a matter of time. We are the house on the curve and the tree is part of the reason the road takes a double bend along our frontage. The other reason is that the former owners of the property allowed the road to be cut in such a way as to have the part that's north of the house to be offset from the road to the south of the house. So, you come to our lot and have to make an S curve to get from the northern part to the southern part. Standing in our yard and looking down the road to the south, you can see where cutting a straight line would have taken out some pretty big trees and quite a chunk of our front yard.

I talked it over with T. and he doesn't mind losing the one tree. More than that, no. So, I called the number on the commissioner's card and left him a message to call me back. Then I got online and tied up the phone for a pretty good while. Maybe in the back of my mind, I'm not so anxious to hear from the gentleman.

Another Holiday?

2010-01-16T11:33:00.009-05:00

Wow, we just had Christmas and New Year - plus some birthdays in the family and it's time for another 3 day weekend. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is a new county holiday so I'm off for the weekend plus the Monday. I can hardly stand staying home another three days, given my bout with a horrible cold that lasted from last Tuesday until this morning. It had me on the couch with tissue and juice, hacking until I thought I'd cough up a lung. I'm still coughing like crazy but my sinus cavity is no longer dumping sludge down the back of my throat and causing soreness with every swallow. I would normally have appreciated the time off in a planned vacation. Spending the enforced idleness in a haze of misery was about enough to cause a permanent state of cross-eyed boredom.

I did find a Starz Channel preview for the weekend. Last night, I was able to catch up on a couple of movies. I hadn't seen the latest versions of either "Race to Witch Mountain" or "Mall Cop". I enjoyed Witch Mountain enough to watch it twice. Mall Cop, not so much. I also finished 2 paperback books during the week and am nearly done with Amy Tan's Teaching Fish to Dance. It is a departure from her usual story telling in that the main character is - well, dead - not to put too fine a point on it. But the story is so well told that I am enjoying the book. Today I'm up and dressed and planning to stay off the couch as long as possible. Unless the urge for a nap absolutely overtakes me. That's possible on a cool and rainy day.

Flurries redone

2010-01-09T10:35:00.006-05:00

So, I have this "App" for my cell phone called My Cast. It's a weather application and since the price was right (free) I couldn't resist downloading it to my phone. I have found it most helpful in planning travel or just to see where the rain is on radar as I'm ready to go outside.

There is a feature where you can make a weather observation and then go to another map and see your observation along with what other folks have put on the site. This morning, I chose to make an observation. I said it was Mostly cloudy, Bitterly cold and my mood was Happy. That done, I went to the map to see the other poor souls who were awake that early in the day. Near my location was another Bitterly Cold but their sky was clear. Lots of cold was to the north of me. Some clouds and rain to the south. But a bit down the map, possibly towards Orlando was one observation that made me burst out laughing.

It was simply OMG Snow Flurries!

Yep, it has snowed in our fair Sunshine State. It took 15 years, for it to happen again and I missed it both times. Well, once, in 1996 or 1997, we drove over to a small town west of us and there were a few small flakes flying but that hardly counts. I guess we'll just have to bundle up and go stand in front of Wal-Mart's freezer case and see if there is enough frost built up to satisfy the wish for a winter wonderland! Maybe while we're standing there, we can get a half gallon of chocolate.

Flurries? We don't need no....flurries!

2010-01-05T17:02:00.004-05:00

Somehow our weather has gotten mixed up with some other country's. Say somewhere in Russia? The forecast for this Thursday is calling for snow flurries as a possible event. We're not really excited about having snow in the yard or on the roof. Flurries are fine, in Atlanta or La Grange. They're also possible at both of those places in the same time frame as our local forecast is calling for.

The weather band radio also said that there might be ice on the highway, Thursday - due to moisture freezing. Duh! Frozen moisture would be ice, now wouldn't it!

When the girls were little, we used to think nothing of driving the length of the state to Stone Mountain and letting them play in the few inches of snow on top. Now that we're older and have accumulated a little bit of sense - we think nothing of piling another blanket on the bed or putting another chunk of wood in the fireplace.

I ask you! Flurries? Well, I for one might get out of bed and look outside if someone were to phone me to say it was snowing. But I'm sure not going to set my clock. T. will probably be up anyway. I'll ask him to check outside and wake me if he sees anything falling from the skies. Unless it's leaves off the trees. Then, just let me snooze.

Once in a while....

2009-12-31T10:35:00.005-05:00

Our little hometown newspaper had a lovely photograph taken somewhere in Arizona showing a huge moon hanging above a ridge of pine trees. The photograph accompanied an explanation of the phrase "Once in a Blue Moon". Nowadays, it refers to the second full moon that occurs within a month but years ago it used to mean something that was a rare and infrequent event.

Thinking about infrequent happenings made me wander mentally into some of the things I hope only happen Once in a Blue Moon. Sort of in order of importance....

Piccpiper having an auto accident.

Terrorists targeting our shore any time.

Waking up to snow in Florida.

Starbucks running out of No Sugar Added Banana Bread.

Someone punching an elderly Wal-Mart Greeter. (Yes, that happened! Can you imagine?)

Starbucks running out of hot chocolate.

Ol-Doc getting a dumb old ticket.

Arson

Floods

Riots

And just about any other bad thing you can imagine happening to those you love.

The coming year is a fresh slate. Let's all write with a gentle hand and try and watch out for each other. Happy 2010! Now, go . . . write the year ahead in your checkbooks!

Just wanted a hamburger....

2009-12-27T21:43:00.010-05:00

Okay, so T. and I went to church this morning and heard a worthy sermon from our pastor. After church we shook hands and gave hugs outside the building then got in our car and started back to the house. I thought about all that turkey sitting in the 'fridge and asked T. if he'd rather skip a sandwich at home and go to town for a BK special. He agreed and we pointed the car northerly. Once we crossed the I-75 overpass, we took a shortcut through some apartments that line both sides of the road and then hung a left at the first road to the left. It was kind of like following instructions to Neverland. First star to the right and straight on til - you see the blue flashing lights.

The State Troopers had set up a checkpoint. Too bad we didn't flee the area!
The transaction went kind of like:
Trooper at the driver side window: Your license, sir. Thank you.
Who owns the vehicle?
Your license ma'am. Thank you.
Let me see your proof of insurance.
(Me in the glovebox: rummage, rummage, RUMMAGE)
Trooper: Are you aware your decal is out of date?
No, ma'am... you do not have until the end of the birth month. It's due by your birthdate.
Did you find your insurance card, ma'am?
(Me in glovebox: RUMMAGE, RUMMAAAGE "Will this one do? It's only 2008.")
Trooper: No, ma'am, don't you have your current insurance card?
(Me: "I have one, I just don't seem to be able to locate it. It may be in my wallet in another purse.")
Trooper: Pull ahead on the grass, sir and wait right there.
(Me: "Oh, that can't be good!")
We pull ahead. We wait. I rummage the glovebox some more.

Trooper returns to the car after a delay of several minutes. This time he comes to my side of the car. T. notices this and rolls down the passenger window for me. Trooper explains that he has to give me a ticket for the out of date decal and says that he could also have cited me for not having my current insurance information on hand, since the car is in my name.

He hands me a standard size sheet of paper with the ticket imprint of both front and back sides generated from his vehicle's computer. I figure it's my tax dollars at work. He explains that because it was a non-moving violation, there will be no points on my license. I just have to pay the ticket cost of ninety-nine dollars. Okay, so it's not tax dollars but my fines at work.

He ends our little transaction by telling me I can request a court date if I want to contest the ticket and takes his leave with a two finger salute to the brim of his hat, wishing me a nice day.

Yeah. Right. At Burger King T. got a whopper. I got a grilled chicken salad. It tasted like cardboard and straw. The good news is - I have thirty days to pay!

Seventh Inning Stretch

2009-12-26T16:32:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

In the 2009 timeline, we're at the word "and" that's nestled after Christmas but before the New Year. This is the week when we positively regret some of the holiday dining choices we've made while looking forward to the traditional New Years dinner of black-eye peas cooked with ham hocks. Maybe with cornbread and some greens to go with it. This meal is supposed to bring luck in the coming year and I suppose it is possible. We certainly never had any luck so bad as to cause us to blame the black-eyes. Knock wood.

One year a well loved Aunt persuaded us to finish a non-cornbread with black-eyes meal by eating twelve grapes, one by one. Each grape ingested, she said was going to bring us good luck for 1 month of the coming year. We downed all 12 little green grapes and commenced to have one of the worst years in memory. I mean, if it could go wrong, it did. Mother vowed never to allow this Aunt to use the grape tradition again. We'd go back to downing black-eye peas and cornbread. Never mess with a family tradition. Or a Southern one!

Year end is also a time to reflect on the past and plan for the future. One of the photographs from the past is of the grandchildren gathered to celebrate December 25th. I will include a copy for your reflection upon the importance of family and while that's happening, I will lie down on the couch and close my eyes for a short planning nap.

Sometimes a thing is what it is....

2009-12-17T10:18:00.005-05:00

Coming home at night is sometimes a thing of beauty. I get out of work at 5PM and home as the sun is setting. Last night T. picked me up at work and we went to the auto repair shop to pick up the car that had been left for a hood latch repair that morning. Surprisingly, the repair cost under $30.00 - which made me happy. We drove on to the house and turned in the driveway. As I was getting out of the car, I glanced over my shoulder to the southwest and spotted a sunset that looked as though the sky was on fire. In the quiet of the day's end the glow stopped me in my tracks. Some things should just be preserved either in memory or on a memory stick. I chose the stick last evening.

Tis the Season for Lights, Shopping and Gathering Round....

2009-12-13T17:13:00.012-05:00

You can see the Christmas lights all around the town. The park downtown is covered with glittering colors and Santa is present from 6 to 9PM in his gingerbread house to talk with the children. And sell their parents photographs of the visit. I think his beard is real!

Elder daughter convinced me to rise and shine at 5AM on Saturday, to be at JCPenney by 6AM for the second day of their blowout sale. That is twice I've shopped before sunrise and really can't see myself doing it again. Even if I did get two neat wallets for the price of one. And T's Christmas gifts are finally purchased. Starbucks wasn't open when we tried the drive through at 6AM but they were there when we went back by at 7AM. They were sold out of all their specialty breads except for the Gingerbread. It makes a tasty breakfast if you add a hot drink.

And there are the church presentations to enjoy - watching our grandchildren perform in Hopeful Baptist's musical show entitled "Christmas in Egypt" was the highlight last night. The boys are in the Kids Choir and they were brilliant in their parts. All the children were special as they presented the story of Joseph, Jesus and Mary living in Egypt. There was a lot of humor in the play and it was very well done. The adults who work with the children deserve a special star in their crowns. Our own church will present their Christmas cantata next week and then the family will settle down and prepare for Christmas and having everyone all together. On Christmas Eve, I like to stay up until midnight and whisper a little Happy Birthday, Jesus and Thank You, before I toddle off to my pillow.

Top picture - Matthew is at the end, on the riser behind the four girls stage center. His head scarf is striped.

Bottom picture - Nathan is in the group of five boys on stage he is the tallest in the red head scarf at the back. Matt is barely visible in this shot, just above to the left, standing on the riser.