Purple poppy

I changed the color of my poppy from blood orange to vivid purple. I chopped all my peonies and most of my poppies and brought them inside and put them in a vase of water. My cats won't leave them alone. They are so starved for fresh greens. I have purchased the alfalfa grass for them, but they throw it up. All over the house. Yuck!

So, my flowers sit atop the refrigerator. I hope I got all the ants off the peonies. I beat them (softly) against my cement porch and a few big black ants ran out.

I spoke to a friend today who was having computer problems. Her modem got fried by a recent lightning strike. I told her I thought I had an extra external one lying around. She lives in the boonies where the cable does not reach and it is far too expensive for her to connect via her dish satellite. DSL wasn't an option, either.

She is depressed. She lost her Mother a few months back while she was in the hospital with pneumonia. She must have an oxygen mask on most of the day and night because she also suffered from congestive heart failure.

My sisters are having a rough time, also. If it isn't money problems it is relationship problems or both. Everyone is tired. Tired of the economy, tired of rising prices, tired of next to no pay raises. Everywhere I turn - depression. Anger. Hostility.

Health care is costly and keeps going up. We ate wrong. We lived wrong. Now we are going to pay the price. Through our noses. My doctor just shook her head when I told her that I had a frozen TV dinner every day after school. The cheap brand. From a freshman in high school until I graduated. Or, a can of ravioli. I won't eat them to this day. I told her I don't blame my Mom. My dad didn't work. My Mom raised eight children, I was the youngest. All the rest of the birds had left the nest and I couldn't expect her to fix a meal for me. She didn't eat with me. So, yeah. My eating habits are bad. It is a lifelong struggle for me to break free of buttered toast dipped in coffee every morning, a bologna sandwich for lunch and a TV dinner for dinner.

Bread was cheap and we ate a lot of it. It was filling.

Repeat after me. I am an adult and I can make my own choices. I do not have to be a victim of my childhood. I recognize the incorrect way and it is up to me to choose the right way. Sounds like I was a child of alcoholics, eh? Well, I'll save that for another time. If I feel like it. I don't like to boo hoo.

The veterans are neglected. The elderly are neglected. Forgotten.

Things are looking very bleak around these parts.