Blog Archives

Morning sound effects

     Car horn, noisy children, quiet returns and sleep deepens.  Hours later, click, click, click, click, click, sniff, sniff, sniff, thump, rattle of door, and loud sigh.    Click, click, click, click, click, thump, thump, thump, thump.

     An hour passes then click, click, click, click, click, thump, rattle of door, soft whine.

     “Okay, okay.”  I open the door to a white dog wagging his tail.

     The bed bouncing commences.  On the bed, off the bed, on the bed, off the bed, on the bed.   He stops to cuddle a few minutes, then bounces off the bed to put his paws on my dresser and stare at the dog in the mirror.  A couple more bed bounces and he’s ready to go downstairs.

     Morning Mom.

     You all have a good one!

Lovely day

      What a great day for walking!  Annie and I made two circuits of the park.  We can’t do that on days when G walks with us.  G has had a knee replaced and once around the park is all she can handle before her other knee starts to kill her.  She dreads it but knows that one of these days that one too needs replacing.

     We saw a wonderful sight by the second foot bridge.  An elderly Lab was tootling around (doing mini laps) in a small patch of deep water.  His mom was standing by keeping watch while he was thoroughly enjoying himself.   Two ducks nearby were unconcerned about his company.

It never gets easy

     On Friday the thirteenth in April of 2001 my baby sister breathed her last breath.  A hole opened in my heart and has never healed.   To have her joy, laughter, sense of humor, and smile leave this world forever was the cruelest thing of all.

I mourned her then.   I mourn her now.  Mary, it still feels like it was only yesterday that we spoke on the phone.  I miss you.  I love you.

Getting antsy for the PW conference

     My conference room-mate and I reserved our room back in January.  I paid my conference fees last month.  Why isn’t it May?

     Because I haven’t planned my basket donations yet?  Gee, I really need to do that.  The title for this years conference is A Writer’s Map.  A theme basket could be in order….any ideas? 

     I have a pile of books to put in baskets again this year.  Most are mysteries but there are several writing books too.  Hmm, I need to start getting into  basket creation mode.

   You all have a good one!

A crow’s picnic?

     Sunday I looked out the window and there was a large crow in the bird bath acting rather peculiar.  Curiosity finally overcame me and I went outside to see what he was doing.  I got to the bird bath and in it I found a fried chicken leg that looked as though it had  come from the pan only minutes before.  This was not something grabbed from a trash bag.  I do believe he was rolling it around in the water to cool it enough to eat it.

     Yesterday I looked out the window and saw the crow in our Tulip poplar, eating something.  Oh, dear if it was something the dogs might find and choke on I thought I’d better go see.  He took off when I opened the back door.  I walked to the bird bath first because of the last incident.  Good thing I did.  For there in the bird bath were the remains of a small bird.  ICK!  I don’t do dead critters.

     I called The Curmudgeon outside and let him clean out the bird bath.  He started making jokes about a Crow’s hobo stew.  “Hey, he’s a green crow, he was using solar power to make his stew.”

     GAG!  “Just clean that ick out of there.”  I went inside to get away from the sick jokes.

     You all have a good one!

 

Blustery day!

      Winnie the Pooh: Happy “Winds-day”, Piglet.
      Piglet: [being blown away] Well… it isn’t… very happy… f-for me.
      Winnie the Pooh: Where are you going, Piglet?
      Piglet: That’s what I’m asking myself, where?
[he is lifted into the air by a gust of wind] Piglet: W-Whoops! P-P-P-Pooh!
      Winnie the Pooh: [grabbing Piglet’s scarf] And what do you think you will answer yourself?

     It seemed like that sort of day here yesterday although it was Monday and not Windsday. 

     Even though the wind blew like crazy the broken branch in the Tulip Poplar is still stuck way up in the tree.  I don’t do tall ladders so it may stay there until it rots away.

     You all have a good one!

 

And how was your holiday?

     Yesterday would’ve been my father’s 97th birthday if he were still with us.  I love you Dad and miss you every day!

     I made us a lovely dinner of leg of lamb, pickled beets and eggs, potato salad, and one deviled egg for both of us.  The Curmudgeon was in heaven over it.  It had to be one of his absolute favorite meals.  In fact, each component is a favorite of his so he was quite over the moon.  The deviled egg I served him made him giggle.

     Gavin and Patty sure enjoyed the tidbits of lamb he provided for them. 

     I hope you had a wonderful weekend and a good day today!

MS takes its daily toll

     Most days The Curmudgeon can barely take the dogs out and feed them in the morning.  He insists that he do it.  He is at his best in the mornings and his best is most people’s worst. 

     This won’t get better.  We know it and work hard to accept it.  His walking is poor at best.  His balance sucks. 

     As the day goes on, he can do less and less.  By one or two in the afternoon he MUST take a nap.  It’s funny, the dogs have decided that they must take a nap then too.  If I don’t close their crate doors and drop the covers down, they will sit in them and whine or Gavin will stand in front of me and bark until I do.

     The Curmudgeon gets up around four and so do the pups.  I take the pups out and then they vie for who gets to sit on The Curmudgeon.    Usually Patty wins but Gavin does get there before her sometimes.

     I think they use this to see how many times they can make The Curmudgeon laugh.

     You all have a good one!

Can we have a do over on the last couple of days?

     Bad Juju, that’s what it is, very bad Juju.   Deliver me from it.  Those that have talked to me in the last couple of days know what I am talking about.  Due to my high standards of privacy, all I can say is that there’s a certain person whom I wish Karma would take a big bite out of said person’s over-sized caboose.  ‘Nuff said.

     With that off my chest I shall endeavor to lighten the mood. 

     Lately, The Curmudgeon has been cuddling Patty in the ‘hand puppet position’…while  cuddling her thusly, he’s been telling her the world’s worst jokes.

     Most are so bad I can’t help but groan or, if worse than bad, giggle like a fool at them.  Please, please, please keep me laughing my dear, dear Curmudgeon!  If it weren’t for the laughter I’d be locked away in the funny farm.

     You all have a good one.

My garden makes me happy

I need to go out into my garden.

Relax. 

I need to release all the tensions of the day. 

Chill.

I need to enjoy the colors, textures, and sounds.

You all have a good one!

What took me hours to accomplish…

     Would take a teenager mere minutes.  Yeah, I’m back to electronics and my need to have a teenager that I can tap for his/her electronic wizardness once in a while.  It’s not that I can’t do it, it just takes me longer to figure it out than it used to–with age comes wisdom and a lesser ability to crack instructions on electronic things.

     I do have a great advantage over many people of my age in that I am willing to learn how to use all the new things that come down the pike.

     Once learned, however, I may not want to keep the electronic device in my life.  Yes, let’s take cell phones as an example–I am not a person who enjoys being connected 24/7.

     I do enjoy my now (after a few hours) well loaded MP3 player though.  I have always loved having a variety of music at my finger tips.  I am doing a happy dance to my wonderful music!

     You all have a good one!

When I don’t take my camera along…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Graureiher_-_Ardea_Cinerea.jpg

     We saw a Grey Heron while on our walk yesterday.  He was gorgeous!  You might know I’d left my camera at home sitting on my desk.  He wasn’t far from where we were walking and yet he didn’t move a muscle as we continued by him.

     A little while later two cranes flew over us and followed the course of the river by air.  I desperately wished I’d brought my camera.

     Signs posted at all our city parks.   “Dogs must be leashed at all times” and “clean up after your dog” seems pretty darned specific to me.  Does It to you?

     Three more dog walkers needed signs.  One of whom I asked if he was going to clean up after his dog, we watched him watch his dog go.  He and the other two had their dogs running loose too

     Why do some people think the law applies to everyone but them?  Those people give responsible dog owners a bad name.  It’s no wonder that I don’t take my dogs to the parks to walk.