Category Archives: Misc
Men-o-pause
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Sleep, it’s a great thing if you can get it. I had about four to five hours last night. My body prefers a good eight. It seems that with the dread thing called menopause comes less sleep. If it isn’t hot flashes waking me, it’s the sweats. Then again, there are those nights where it’s impossible to fall asleep.
DH can tell when I’ve had a bad night because when he greets me he gets a glassy glare until I’ve had my coffee. Sometimes he might even get a growl. He pauses in mid sentence, points to the coffee pot, and waits for the second or third cup to kick in. He learned over the years never to stand between the coffee pot and me when I first get up.
Mood swings aren’t fun and I’m glad I don’t have them too often. DH is thrilled. What man wants his wife to go from zero to sixty in three seconds? His car yes, his wife, no.
Life is ever changing, and to tell the truth, I’m enjoying the heck out of this time of my life. There’s a sense of freedom now that I don’t remember having when I was younger. Yep, call me crazy but I like this.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Should a klutz clean ceiling fans?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I need to clean the ceiling fans in the living room. They look like they have a fur coat. EW, yeah disgusting! To do a proper cleaning I have to climb the ladder, prop a bucket of soapy water on it, and scrub each blade. Then I have to wipe down the lights, and the rest of the fan.
That’s why I rarely clean them. They are on most of the time to keep the air circulating so it isn’t often that anyone notices they are dirty. When I notice, you can bet they’ve gone past dirty and into the realm of holy crap what is that?
I hate heights, I hate climbing ladders, and cleaning is not one of my favorite things to do. However, even I am disgusted with how dirty those fans are. No one else is going to do it. Therefore, this klutz needs to climb the ladder and clean.
Now I ask you, should I wait until after the conference? Would it be tempting fate to climb a ladder this close to the date?
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, I hate cleaning, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
A quick movie review
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I bought the Avatar DVD today and we watched it tonight. We both loved it. DH and I agree it’s a movie worth watching repeatedly.
The FX were great. The story drew us in and had us rooting for the natives and booing the soldiers.
There was plenty of action to keep DH happy and enough story to hold my interest. Rent it, buy it, enjoy it.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Avatar, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, DVDs, Fiction, Home, Love, Movies, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Dog slave
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We’ve certainly been busy around here. DH runs across town to his mother’s early every morning and stays there for a few hours. On the days that the OT and PT people are there, he stays longer. I’ve been sending along meals that she can easily microwave.
This means I have to get up earlier so the dogs can get out as often as they want. I am NOT a morning person. I never have been, never will be. No, but I am a slave to my dogs. Their needs come first even before my first cup of coffee.
Therefore, while I’m here granting the pups’ every wish, I am also doing things like pond maintenance, laundry, cleaning, and sometime next month, painting the interior of the house. I’ll be starting in the kitchen.
I have two Bull Terriers to contend with, which means painting around here isn’t an easy task. Any daytime painting has to be limited to the higher areas. Dog nose prints on freshly painted walls are not artwork. I hate ladders and ladders with nosey dogs are not secure. At night, I can paint at dog level. It’s a good thing I’m a night person.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Summer siestas here we come
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I am so pleased with Overstock.com. This was the first time I’ve ordered anything from them. I ordered a new rope hammock from them on the 10th and it arrived on the 14th. Wow, that was fast since I only got the E-mail saying they shipped it the night of the 13th.
For several years I’ve had this lovely, heavy-duty stand sitting in pieces because I hadn’t replaced my old hammock that, due to circumstances beyond my control, got wrecked by a couple of visitors.
I sure did miss that hammock. There’s nothing like relaxing in one on a hot summer’s evening or snoozing in the shade of the magnolia in the afternoon after working in the yard. A hammock beats the heck out of any lawn chair by far.
This one is wide enough that DH and I can easily snuggle on it and watch the stars. I can’t wait for the summer meteor showers now. They call it ‘The Presidential’ size. It’s so wide that if I’m in the center and stretch out my arms I don’t touch either side.
My only problem will be trying to figure out where to store it when it’s not hanging on the stand.
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, online shopping, Writer, Writing
Toot toot tootsie goodbye
Posted by doggonedmysteries
What is with people and the need to lean on their car horns? No one gets out of their car and politely knocks on a person’s door these days. No, they have to sit out in their cars and honk the horn until whoever it is they are looking for comes outside.
Then there are the idiots who honk their car horns to make noise and irritate people for no reason other than the idiots are obnoxious.
On our street, we have three people who work nights (and no I’m not including me in that), there’s another person, an invalid, who is stuck in a bed all the time. Then we have my next-door neighbor who I know works two jobs and sleeps only a few hours at a time. Do the horn honkers consider that they might wake someone up? Nope.
Whatever happened to consideration for others? Long gone I’m sorry to say, tossed away with that other all-important thing, called common sense. It’s no wonder people’s tempers are shorter fused these days.
Is it because personal interaction is outdated? Has the electronic age brought us to this? What do you think?
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
A weakness for plants
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Saturday I received one of my favorite spring treats—the flyer from a local farm and greenhouse operation. ‘They offer thousands of healthy bedding plants, annuals, and perennials. Vegetables including over 75 tomato varieties and 68 pepper varieties and large selection of herbs and scented geraniums. They have blueberry and raspberry bushes along with 52 hosta cultivars and 48 different hemerocallis.’ In other words, they are a gardener’s paradise.
G and I will pay a call there after the Pennwriters conference next month. By then, we can safely plant tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, and the many other floras we’ll buy that day. We will load the rear of her hubby’s SUV to overflowing.
Last year I spent more than she did. We’ll see who gets off cheapest this year and I’m betting it won’t be me. I have a weakness for plants, an addiction if you will and not unlike my addiction for books.
I’ve perused their lists and marked what I want. This year the gardens will have, vegetable plants intermixed with flowers. The tomatoes I tried that way last year grew well. I’d sure like a nice variety of vegetables this year.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy
Posted by doggonedmysteries
It was bad enough that I had to put a band-aid on the lower half of my left thumb to cover the open blister I got from all that raking. Then there’s the Goliath bullfrog bite on my right index finger. That also required a band-aid because the scratches run the length of my finger. They kept reopening and bleeding every time I bent it. Now, I have another band-aid on my left index finger where I cut that while opening the box in which my new vacuum arrived. I am the klutz queen.
Yes, my new vacuum arrived today. It purrs like a kitten and doesn’t require ear protection. Holy crap does it ever clean! It weighs less than a third of my old vacuum too. It came with a free steam-cleaning mop.
I could possibly go into spring-cleaning mode. My house might go from slovenly to sparkling at this rate. I can picture it featured in House Beautiful. Hah! Whom am I kidding, with two dogs and DH the slob? Surely, I dream. The house doesn’t dust itself or scrub bathrooms. {Sigh.} Knowing me, it will be clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Bullfrogs can draw blood.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Yes, I do think that most of the people around here are convinced I’m crazy. You should have seen the looks I got from a few cars that passed me tonight when I was picking up night crawlers in the alley. Hey, I’m a gardener. I also have fish and bullfrogs that love worms. Who am I to pass by the hordes of huge night crawlers that were wandering out onto the street because we had rain?
One person understood. A woman about my age pulled her car up even with me and rolled down her window. “For your gardens right?”
“Well, yes. And for the frogs and fish—free food you know. Commercial Koi food costs plenty.”
She pointed back down the street from the direction she’d come. “I saw a bunch of huge ones back there.”
“Thanks.”
She waved and headed on her way. I went looking for more night crawlers.
Goliath the bullfrog was pleased with my midnight snack offerings. Although, at one point, he thought my index finger was more food. Ouch! I actually bled. Ungrateful sod.
The Koi were happy too. I only gave them a few worms and then the rest went into the garden.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, bullfrogs, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Fish, frogs, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
The boys in blue
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Some idiot drove around and around the block down on the next street. He was honking his horn and yelling like a banshee. It might not have been too bad except it was 2:15 a.m. I figured someone down there was going to be very angry at the ruckus. I only found it to be annoying but then I wasn’t sleeping. I turned on the police scanner. I heard the dispatcher report a man with a gun at that location.
Nothing gets the boys in blue’s adrenalin rushing quite like a man with a gun call. I heard the, “on location” come within a mere two minutes. It was funny how the yelling and the horn honking stopped so abruptly. The sheer temptation to peek out the front door to see down the street was strong. I stole a look although DH would kill me if he knew. There were five cop cars at the end of our street. I ducked back inside, closed and locked the door, and double-checked my back door to make certain the lock was on. Then I sat back to listen to the scanner.
Twenty minutes later, three of the five cop cars drove up my street heading back on patrol. Two others were still busy at the end of the block. I guess a walk past the neighborhood gossip’s house might give me some fodder for another post or a scene in one of my books.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: adrenalin rush, Author, Beads, Bones, Books on writing, boys in blue, Bull Terriers, cops, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Can two objects occupy the same space?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Today Gavin proved that the answer to that question is no. How did he prove it? Well, that’s the story for tonight.
I had Gavin out in the yard. He was behaving, sniffing around looking for a place to mark, when the kids across the street began doing a mad dash up and down the sidewalk. Gavin got excited and began to bark at them. Me, being the idiot I am, decided it was time to leash him and take him inside before he became too wound up.
He was standing still at the front fence barking at the kids. I reached for his collar to snap on the leash so I could drag him away from the fence. At that moment he decided to dart to his left. Where was I standing? I was at his left.
Now if you’ve never met a Bull Terrier in person you have no concept of what their heads are like. Think cinder block and you’ll have a decent idea.
Think fast, if I was at his left, and he dashed to his left, can two objects occupy the same space at the same time? The previously mentioned objects being Gavin’s cinder block head and my freaking knee, I say NAY. I also said ouch, and many other words in a sailor’s vernacular that tinged the air around me a lovely, bright shade of blue.
Yeah, go ahead and call me a klutz. You can even call Gavin an idiot for not looking where he was going. Now, if you all will excuse me, I need to pack my knee in ice again.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, can two objects occupy the same space?, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, relative theories and all that stuff, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
MIL is home again
Posted by doggonedmysteries
DH reported that he left a very happy mother in her home today. Her dog went berserk when he saw her come in the door. Happy, happy, joy, joy! Little old Lance was about doing doggie cartwheels he was so ecstatic that his Mom was home. MIL was thrilled to have her digs back.
I sent over some homemade frozen meals for her. All she needs to do is pop them in the microwave. Her freezer is loaded, and her fridge is resupplied with all fresh stuff. Her prescriptions are filled. She’s set for a while.
Now we hope we can get back into a normal routine again. She will have a visiting nurse come in occasionally and someone from some agency is stopping in tomorrow to see how she’s settling at home. DH will go over in the mornings and evenings to check on her.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
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