Old Truck (Sepia version)

I flipped the image and added the sepia option to the photo I took a couple of months ago outside a small country school. Back when I took my camera with me everywhere. My daughter and I were going somewhere the other day and we saw something and I said "I wish I had my camera." Why don't I take it anymore? Mostly the heat. I don't like to let it sit in the car while I am at work.

I stopped at the farmer stand today. Bi-color sweet corn on the cob, cantaloupe, tomatoes and freshly baked cinnamon rolls. I couldn't bring myself to buy zucchini. Not because of my joke a couple of days ago, but because I knew that I would be busy this week and over the week-end and would not get a chance to bake anything.

My main problem at work has been resolved. My home office had a cable in the wrong telco demarcation biscuit. I've done the same thing, so I cannot say anything. Another problem cropped up. It is like a leaking dam. As soon as you get one leak plugged up, another one appears. That's how it goes sometimes. It sure makes the time go fast. I wanted to sink my teeth into my java book this summer, but that ain't happening.

I purchased three sombreros today for us to wear to my sister's Fiesta this Saturday. They had two simple ones that I am going to let my daughter and her boyfriend decorate. While the sales lady was looking for more in the back I found two more different ones. They were very colorful and vivid. The only problem? They had Senior Citizen printed on them around the rim and a big button. I'll just take the button off. I bought one. I don't care.

We will go out tomorrow evening and look for South of the Border stuff to decorate them with. I don't think I will be purchasing any ponchos or blankets to wear if the weather remains hot like it is. I love colors, but I hate being hot. I think I saw some maracas at the book store.That would be fun. I'll make sure to take my camera.

Jasper's pillow

Jasper napping on my bed

He had been using my arm as a pillow. When I got up from my nap, I immediately grabbed something to put under his head. My nightgown was the first thing I found. He raised his head a wee bit, sleepily looked around and then lay back down. I got up and he didn't stir once.

A bit of a bug has hold of me. Tired, run down. Nothing major. Just enough to make me cranky and irritable. I have a busy week. Running to something every day. Thursday is a Pat Benatar concert at The Football Hall of Fame Festival. She was not a favorite of mine, but I know her songs well. I sang them along with the radio and juke boxes back in the 80's. I understand her live performance is something else. I may take my camera.

I have a sister and a good friend in depressed stages at this time in their life. I have a Mexican Fiesta party to go to on Saturday, but maybe I can visit one or both of them the next week-end. My Mom said as she was raising 8 kids, she didn't have a moment to spare for herself. Then after we all grew up and left the nest, she was left alone sitting and staring at the walls. Months on end. I tried to visit her often. In my heart I know I did my share. I am going to try to visit my sister and friend this month in an effort to cheer them up.

Moose in black and white

Where's the food, lady?

Still working on getting the rats and matted hair out of Moose's fur. She will only let me work a little bit at a time. Her tail flips and thumps the entire time. She bites me (not hard) when she has had enough. She gets up and leaves. She works hard at keeping clean, and she is improving.

I had company this week-end. The beer bread is gone. I didn't get my grass mowed. Between raindrops and running it just didn't happen. My yard wins the scruffy contest for this month.

I was able to get a lot of paperwork sorted yesterday. I am still missing some insurance papers that I need to turn in. I just hope I didn't throw them away accidentally. I am combing my room, but they are not appearing.

Another sister signed up for the Internet Friday. That makes five out of 8 children. One has email access through his wife, but they don't check it very often. I find that with email we tend to go into detail a little bit more. With the telephone if you get distracted, you miss a piece of the conversation. The person on the other end of the line senses that you are not listening and the thread gets dropped. With email you can rattle on and the recipient can read it or skim over it. But, it is there for them to re-read. And, they can reply.

Things are looking up for the nephews in my family. One has been promoted at work to DB (Data Base) Analyst and recently purchased his first home. He is so excited. One found a steady job and his new business card says his job title is "Scientist." And, the other one passed his Series 7 financial exam.

Other areas of the family tree. Not so good. Sigh.

Bountiful Beer Bread

By Tastefully Simple

After baking for one hour, the directions say you must wait 30 minutes before slicing it. Arrgghh! I suppose that sets the taste to be the best it can be. I used beer with the mix. It smelled pretty good. I did not imbibe. I still have about a dozen left in my refrigerator from the party. I didn't even know if I had any or not. That's how much attention I pay to the contents of my icebox. I also found a Pepsi. I was craving a Pepsi the other night.

So, I wait. I baked this while taking a break from my closet cleaning. Filing, filing and filling up the trash can. Sorting, sorting and filling up the trash can. Trying not to stop and get nostalgic over the Lion King tickets and program from April of this year. How long should I keep my bank statements? 7 or 3 years? Is that 7 for a business and 3 for personal? Aw, I better keep them 10 years just to be on the safe side. I am a pack rat.

It is really interesting to look at your checkbook ledger from 10 years ago. At least I think it is. How about 20 years ago? Okay, I don't have one from that far back. I was living in Virginia back then. I have journals to remind me of that time in my life.

I was reading the paper today and just skimmed across the Pets for sale. And I thought of puppy mills. They seem so prevalent around this area. I have heard that the Amish are big on puppy mills. That their religion places animals at a very low level in life and that they are after the almighty dollar. Where does their religion place the dollar? If they are even the ones who run the mills. After reading a bit on Wikipedia, I will never purchase a pet from a pet store. I kind of figured all along, but still.

I purchased a set of Koss headphones for work yesterday. Full size for comfort, but middle of the road model. Nothing too expensive or fancy. I was able to sit at my desk and work for the first time all week. My co-worker just got her pain medication increased and she would not stop bopping around and bubbling over with conversation. She would jump up from her desk, with the LTD catalog in her hand and quip "Look at this!" I was tired, cranky, sore and frustrated from my work week. I wanted to punch.... uh, never mind. I found solace in headphones and music. I had work to do.

A few months ago she gave me the rundown of all the medication she was taking. Here is the list. Remember, she has had an increase.

(Note: I am going to misspell these so that she cannot search and stumble upon this page. Just remove the z's.)

Actziq fentzanyl lollizpop - 600mg - she takes 3 a day (only gets 60 a month, so she runs out)
Duragzesic Fenztanyl Traznsdermal - 100 mg every 3 days
Xaznax - not sure of the dosage
Muszcle Relazxers

The technology cord's in the schools are beginning to laugh at her. I overheard them. My home office may be looking into this, they may be sticking their heads in the sand. I am staying out of it the best that I can. The medical professionals she has seen over the past 2 years cannot seem to find what is causing her pain. She had some dental work a couple of weeks prior to the problem. She is just now getting her dentist to believe her.

She paces the floor when it is time to refill her lollipop prescription. She does not hide the fact that she takes this medicine in any way shape or form. She tells everyone and anyone who will listen to her. She sucks on her lollipops while talking to the tech's and school personnel and co-workers. She laughs and makes remarks "Whew! I'm really buzzing now! I just had a pain stick!"

She has no idea that so many of our schools have lost respect for her (if they had any to begin with). I could say something to my supervisor, but I know from previous experience that they don't do much about anything. A couple of times I was reprimanded for being mean and nasty to her. She cries - a lot. She used to run and whine to a female manager who babied her and would jump all over me. (March 24th, 2005). I would brush the both of them off, irritating them even more. I have improved my coping strategies over the past 2 years and am quite happy in my work. Just a little fine tuning now and again (like headphones) and I am back on track and back in control of my attitude, well-being and life.

Clouds in my coffee

Sunset silhouette

I noticed clouds in my coffee this morning. I went to move the cup of hot Joe out of my way while putting my make-up on and I saw what looked like a bunch of clouds in there. I thought "Huh. Clouds in my coffee." Sounds like a song, eh? hee, hee.

So, I started thinking. What did Carly mean by that phrase? Was it a bad omen? I don't put much regard into that type of thinking, so I promptly forgot about it. I went on to work and what a day I had. I felt good at the start. I had a small success with a cabling issue. Then it all went downhill. I'll bet I spent three hours straight walking back and forth between a school basement dungeon (where the phone lines come in) and to the dark and dirty closet on the 2nd floor.

The telco insisted that their line was good. I tried every trick I had and then some to get that T1 line to come up. The school has 4 others, so it wouldn't miss that fifth one. It was the fact of that matter that the telco brushes us off. I was going to make damn sure it wasn't anything I could fix. I swapped cables, I re-routed cables, I re-crimped cables. I moved cables from one interface to another. I re-configured interfaces. I increased the differential-time delay. I was grasping.

The fifth T1 line remains in an unusableFault state. I have read Cisco web pages until my eyes dried up and fell onto my desk and I had to soak them in a glass of water before I could put them back into their sockets. Maybe there is a limit vector going on here.

I don't have any other school with 5 T1's (7720MB approximate) bonded together into one big pipe. I had one with four. They were in another area code and that area code got fiber. Our area code does not offer fiber. Between the telephone company and the cable company - it is a no go. Fiber offers the schools 10MB of bandwidth. They can go hog wild.

I'll be back at it tomorrow, drinking coffee, pushing the clouds out of the way. Oh, it is still hot in the closet. I tracked a custodian down to empty the air conditioner pan. It stops working when the pan becomes full of water. I asked him to wash the filthy filter, too. I replaced the power supply in the ATM switch (the other one burned up - surprise, surprise).

For now, I am back to reading all about Troubleshooting ATM IMA links... (yawn).

A little ball of dynamite

Chessa a Schipperke

We get to babysit Chessa for 10 days in August. This breed is one mighty feisty ball of energy. She does settle down in the evening and is very jealous of cats. She cries when her owner leaves and races around the house like a Tasmanian devil. In fact, I think she resembles one.

I was out visiting tonight. I have a headache. About 15 people showed up at my brother's house and the guys kept throwing little Nerf and plastic balls over our heads in an attempt to make it into a child's basketball hoop. I got hit many times. Add to this a dog that is half German Shepherd and half Rottweiler running around slobbering. Four children under 10 and my head is ready to explode.

I took my brother dinner, but we couldn't eat because of the sheer number of visitors they had drop by. My brother had told me last week that they always have people at their house. Well, it must be the central location.

I saw something very sad. My sister-in-law's Mother came down to visit. This is one sweet lady. I like her very much. I looked over and her ankles were black. A deep purplish black. I almost got sick. I recall that she has circulation problems and a very bad case of varicose veins, but I had never seen the circulation so poor that the ankles turned that dark. Maybe in a photo, but never three feet away from me.

My SIL had made zucchini bread and cake with cream cheese icing. The cake was delicious! I told her I want the recipe. Well, I want the cream cheese icing more, but whatever it takes. Which reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago.

Question: "How do you know when somebody doesn't have any friends?"

Answer: "They have to buy their zucchini in a grocery store!"

LOL! I plan to buy some this week-end so I can make the cake. Poor, poor pitiful me. Actually, I'll find a farmer's market and get me some.

More glowing

My nephew is enjoying his camera features

This is more colorful movement on the night of the fireworks with the glow sticks. Too much fun!

I was working with a Cisco engineer today and I wasn't quite following what he was telling me. At one point he just blurted out, "I'm not explaining it right." I could tell he was exasperated. In other words he was telling me 'You have no idea of what I am talking about!' LOL!

Glowing creature

Jumping rope with the glow sticks

At the front and east end of my house is where we sit to watch the fireworks. Waiting for them to start, we handed out the glow sticks. One creative young one made a jump rope and my nephew captured him in a photograph. July 7th, 2007 during my party.

Night Blooms

The first of my moonflowers this year

Bob Seger had his Night Moves, I have my night blooms. I love this flower. It happens to grow very well in my soil. They are perennial, the lady before me planted them (or the folks before her) and I have relocated two sets of them. One in the front of my patio which came up this year and the other by my back porch, which didn't come up this year. Not sure what happened there.

I hear through relatives that a few other folks had the same little bug that I had this past week-end. The kind that makes you want to stay close to home and comfortable surroundings.

I didn't get to any more movies today. I did hit a cook-out at my daughter's boyfriend's house. I made deviled eggs to take with me.

While in Niagara I had pulled a muscle in my side. I did it while jumping into the driver seat of the rental car and I guess I wasn't used to the car and I was in a hurry because traffic was heavy. Anyway, each time I laughed it hurt. If you know me and my family that is what we do best. Laugh, laugh, laugh. It passed in a few days, as most pains do, but at the cook-out I laughed and I thought "Oh, no! The pain is back." I was telling my daughter about it when we got home. I said I didn't know what I had done because I had rested all week-end. Then I remembered. My 83 lb. dog. I lifted her into the tub to bath her. Oy vay! How many days will it take this time before it goes away?

A rose by any other color

A beautiful rose in bloom behind my office

For lunch Thursday I took a walk. For some bizarre reason most of my photos came out blurry, I must have been having a bad day. Except for this one. It was the only decent picture of the roses that I got. At first I described it as apricot and then I quickly realized that I was off course. Pinkish/orange salmon or coral? Either way, it sure is purdy.

I wonder what the people in their houses think when I walk into their driveway and start taking pictures of their flowers? If I saw someone I would immediately go up to them and explain what I was doing and compliment them on their beautiful blossoms, but at this house they never come out. It is only 2 feet off the alley and I am quick. But this is the second time I have photographed their roses. I don't step on their grass and I never touch the flower. I just step in their driveway, snap and step back out. Well, I think I just figured out why most of my photos were blurry.

My daughter went here today with friends. I have the day to myself and I have caught something. Just enough to put me down a bit. I had a touch of it yesterday and Thursday, so I am resting today. Movies and rest. Light work on the side if I feel like it.

I am trying to find someway I can get back the 2 hours of my life I wasted on this movie. It was horribly, horribly bad. I also watched Premonition and still feel like Sandra Bullock has no acting range, or if she does she is hiding it. Same character, same looks, movie after movie after movie.

Golden Elvis

That's a real guy in there

Yep. He was real. He was handing out gold bead necklaces at $2 a pop. What a racket. I didn't want a gold beaded necklace nor did I want to go anywhere near this metallic monstrosity. My zoom let me see all I wanted of him.

The next day at the casino my sister said there was a head-to-toe gold guy wearing a toga. I wonder if it was the same one. Probably.

Photo Friday Challenge this week is vacation. Gee, I don't think I have a problem finding a photo to choose from there!

Misty

Taken from Journey Beneath the Falls

I discovered a co-worker was at Niagara Falls a week before I was. He said his wife came down with food poisoning the day they left the area. He also remarked on the Nazi-like conduct of the border patrol. We were expecting that type of behavior from them.

The Journey Beneath the Falls was exhilarating in the fact that the spray coming from the falls invigorated you. It was akin to running through a sprinkler when you were young. Just fun stuff and everybody was laughing and giggling. The grass there was so lush and green you wanted to run and get a horse and let it chomp away.

Of course you had to take a dark, dank and basement smelly tunnel to get there. What got to all of us the most was the sheer number of pushy people. They would not take turns or stay to the right as we were directed. They jumped into the left side of the tunnel in some selfish effort to get ahead of the rest of us and in the meantime blocking the tourists coming out of the tunnel. At one lookout point we just got tired of the mass of rude people pushing to the front and waiting for our turn that was never going to come, that we just turned around and went back down the tunnel. We refused to sink to their level and push our way to the lookout.

I hesitate to pinpoint any nationality of people, but there were busloads and they literally stepped on you or pushed up against you. It was as if they were raised in a country so crowded that it has become normal for them to push, push, push. It can ruin it for you. I did tell my sisters that I read somewhere that many foreign folks were brought up in a rude and barbaric culture, so I guess they cannot be totally to blame.

We passed up some of the side trips because of this crowd. The next day it was just another busload and more pushing and shoving. Stepping on toes. You couldn't even say anything to them because they did not speak English. And they were long gone anyway, pushing past other unsuspecting tourists.

For the most part, the trip was a memorable one. I need to plan better next time and try to go during a less busy season. Maybe that will help.

Dots

The butterflies in the conservatory at Niagara Falls seemed to like my daughter's headband. I can see why this one liked it, because it has dots that match but before we left we had to get one of the workers to remove a bright orange striped one. Since we were not supposed to touch them we asked him to remove it before we left. He uses a soft piece of felt to lift them off. Very gently.

Do you ever notice how some hair stylists are gentle when they do your hair and others are quite rough? I had a stylist today who was ever so gentle. It was quite refreshing. No poking me with the comb, no combing the tops of my ears off. In fact I barely kept my eyes open. It was hypnotizing. I aim to remember her name so that I can request her again.

I am getting back into the swing of work, I think. Disappointment. The usual. Not disappointed in me, but in my organization 's leadership. My heart sinks. I must keep my head up. I must take pride in my work.

Speaking with a school worker today, she said her son had just taken a trip to Niagara Falls. She said he called and asked her to put more money into his bank account because it was so much more expensive than he thought it would be. Yep. That seems to be the sentiment. Maybe a tour bus would be a better deal for folks.

I would skip: Maid of the Mist, Skywheel and Montana's restaurant. Hey, I didn't think about it at the time but maybe her son lost his money in the casino. Yikes.

While my sisters went to the casino my daughter and I caught the show: Cirque Niagara's Avaia in Niagara Falls. If you are thinking of going to this show, you may not want to spring the extra dough for the ringside seats for two reasons. The arena seating is small enough that you can see all the show from anywhere and so many seats down in the front are left empty, some folks just move into them from their cheaper seats after the show begins.

The show was stunning where it brings horses and acrobats together. No photos allowed so I did not get to record the event. Boo. I don't like attention and I was singled out to be a comedy sketch with one of the clowns. When I realized what was happening I was mortified. The incident seemed to last an eternity and nearly ruined the show for me. I played along but was silently praying for it to end quickly. For the rest of the show, every time the clown came out, I was so afraid that he was going to come back over to continue the sketch. I know it is all fun and games, but I wish they had picked a younger girl who would giggle and entertain the crowd more. I was like "get away from me!" I think my daughter got a kick out of it, though. There is a third reason NOT to buy ringside seats!

775 feet above the falls

The view from the Skylon Revolving Restaurant

The menu on-line says that the cheesecake is 9.50 per slice. The menu I saw on Friday night said 11.00 - Canadian. It was still the best food we had during our entire time there.

I am in the process of slamming Montana's cookhouse via an on-line comment. I need to find my receipt, though to finish it. That place was a disaster from the time we sat down. I'll never eat there again.

But the Skylon was fabulous. The only setback was no ladies room on the floor of the restaurant. Men's yes, ladies a floor up where the Observation deck was. What is up with that? The view from the revolving restaurant was spectacular. We picked 8:30 p.m. to dine and the clouds were almost melodic in nature.

The tower itself is 520 feet high. The restaurant revolves once per hour. I probably took a continuous stream of photos for 50 minutes straight. It was a beautiful experience that I have no regret doing whatsoever.

One Ominous Photo

With a cloud cover as shown and the day being Friday the 13th we were lead like cattle to a slaughter in our blue plastic rain covers. Herded onto the boat to sail into one of the most powerful waterfalls in the Northern Hemisphere. Maid of the Mist. I barely got wet enough to even wear the plastic. Journey Behind the Falls was much more exciting. Bah!

Still resting up and recovering. We retrieved the big galoot today. I think she is really depressed now that she knows how the other half lives. Real dog lovers who don't leave for work every day and spoiled her something awful. I return to work tomorrow. Yippee Skippy.

Rainbow Bridge

The rainbow over the Horseshoe falls. Whew. I'm whipped. I'll post more tomorrow.

The big galoot

I miss her already, the big galoot!

We drove Sable to my sister's house this evening. We won't pick her up until Sunday. She saw me put my shoes on and pick my purse up and she was trying to get out the door. How do they know? She will be spoiled rotten up there. Three retired dog lovers. They had BLT's and she wouldn't even look at the bacon. I ran out the basement garage door and closed it before she could get there. My daughter and her beau went out the front. Arrgghh!

Tomorrow morning, we are headed up through Ohio, PA and Buffalo to Niagara Falls. We are staying on the Canadian side. My cell phone provider could not tell me if I had coverage in Canada or not. He had the tiniest map. I'll see what I can find on line. He tried to sell me 100 minutes for $10 but after holding for 15 minutes he told me that I was probably covered. Double Arrgghh!

This afternoon I was hit with the "after-the-event" crash. I crashed. I slept for 2 hours. That is not normal for me at all. The most I would ever sleep in the afternoon is a 20 minute cat nap. I awoke and thought I was going to get an "after-the-event" migraine. It didn't materialize. Hooray! I have a full month's worth of my headache prescription for the trip, so I am good to go. I guess I'll start packing. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, huh?

Tired

My 7/7/07 Independence day bash:

39 people showed. 10 didn't, but extras came that I was not expecting, so it all evened out. I invited 40, hoped for 30. I did not purchase fireworks, but one nephew brought some. The grass was very dry, but all went okay. The glow sticks were the big hit again. My niece brought a sno cone maker - also a big hit. (Non alcoholic sno cones). My sister brought the bar - literally. She brought an oak bar for my patio. I will get a picture of it soon. She completely stocked the bar also. I only had to bring out my gin for one gin drinker. I had beer in the coolers, but she used to be a bartender so she mixed the drinks.

I had so much food and beer left over that five stayed over again for Sunday to party. They went to a car show at the festival over the hill in our town park. The heat was too intense. So many cars didn't show because of high gas prices and the heat.

I did not take one picture. I usually don't if I am hosting. My nephew got some awesome ones of the kids running around in the glow sticks and of the fireworks. He is going to be very busy though because his computer crashed, he bought a house and will be moving, so I don't think I will see the pictures for a while.

The above photo is layers of my Christmas tree lights from December. I thought they might pass for fireworks.

Me, my daughter and two sisters are headed for Niagara Falls on Wednesday so I have plenty more to do. You can bet I'll take pictures of this trip! I am still cleaning up after the party. The old dishwasher has had a work out. I handed food out left and right because there will be nobody here to eat it. I am taking our dog to my sister's to babysit and she is getting a cooler full of beer and pop. She is having a get together on the 4th of August.

Peruby very tired. Yawn.

Busy, busy, busy

Can you believe it? The theme for Photo Friday Challenge this week is busy. The above photo is a shot of my kitchen before the party. Out of chaos... and all that stuff. I have been going non-stop since eleven a.m. this morning. Five hours straight. I am ready for a break. My feet are killing me. 23 hours before the hoopla.

The fog on the lake

There was no fog. This is a creation of three pictures planted on top of each other. I have been having some fun creating since I realized I could do layers at three times the speed in Power Point that I can in Photo Shop or Paint Shop Pro.

We went to the lake's fireworks show last night. My daughter is 16 and she is beginning to realize what we all do sooner or later. Things are not as spectacular as they used to be. She made the comment about how short they were. I have two theories on this. 1. As we age we find that the more fireworks we see, the less awesome they are because we have more to compare our current experience to and 2. They finished them off just before the rain came, so maybe they hurried things along as it began sprinkling.

We took her beau and his younger sister with us. We should have taken her to the zoo with us. They all had more fun lying on the blanket creating art with the tube of 100 neon light sticks I brought along. I bought 3 tubes for the party and let them have one for tonight. My daughter's beau was very creative and made her a flower by biting little holes into the plastic connectors. He also had to bite into one with the glow liquid just to see what it tasted like. My daughter cautioned him, saying that she did it once and it turned her tongue numb. Yuck. He said it tasted pretty awful. Of course, I told him not to do it again. Kids will be kids.

It was chilly up on the hill and I had packed plenty of blankets and sweat shirts. As it turned out, I needed the warmth. I also brought a fold-up lawn chair for myself. The kids can sit on the ground for three hours. I can't. Well, not without a lot of pain.

The air is damp and cool today. Our town festival is in full swing. I may take some time today or tomorrow to go over the hill to succumb to a sausage sandwich. I have been watching the weather channel and they keep saying that Saturday will be low 80's and sunny. Having the entire week off from work before my party has helped me tremendously. I am actually getting everything that I wanted to get done accomplished. It also helped that my trash pick-up day is on Wednesday and that got pushed back a day, so I have more trash out of my house before the party. As in the way of kitty litter.

Since I am serving alcohol, I have accommodations for five extra people that I can place in my daughter's bedroom and our basement. My basement is fully finished and sectioned off into two big rooms, and a laundry room with a full bath/shower. On one side I have a day bed with a trundle pull-out bed and on the other side I have a sleeper sofa. The lady that lived here before me had completely set up the house. I told my real estate agent, I wanted a house that I would not have to make a lot of repairs to because I can't get up on the roof or tile a floor. Well, okay - I could do those things if I had to but they wouldn't be pretty.

Most of my company has one driver that doesn't drink. I am hoping for a crowd of at least 25, but I have planned for 40. Most is family with a few friends that show up. I had to purchase blank music CD's. I have not bought them in years. I am busy making music CD's for the get together. A lot of oldies for me and my sisters. If somebody likes the music I just pop out the CD when it is done and give it to them.

As I sat on the hill last night overlooking the lush green trees and a small section of the lake while looking up at a cloudy and effervescent sky; a serene calm came over me. You know the feeling. That everything is right with the world. I guess I am in a place in my life where I am content. Not just content, but very content. My daughter and I had a few turbulent years, but are growing closer all the time. I am settling into my life, enjoying my job and am able to pay my bills. Things get a little scary from time to time, but for the most part they are smoothing out.

The migraines are still a pain, but the miracle of the medicine has given me my life back. No longer do I lose hours and days to the monster. For the most part it brings me back to living a normal life in a couple of hours. Okay, enough with my complacency. Back to work getting ready for the big bang.

It's Independence Day

The eagle photo is mine (taken at the Cleveland Zoo yesterday) and the flag background can be found here. The title of my post today is the same as a song penned by Gretchen Peters and performed so soulfully by Martina McBride. To grow up in a family with alcoholism we find ourselves escaping. Whether it is outside of the house, in a book, or eventually into alcohol ourselves one day. The song is a favorite of one of my sister's.

How I wish that I had not posted the Photo Friday theme before yesterday. The elephant area was the first we went to at the zoo. I was not tired of taking pictures since I was just beginning so I got plenty of shots of "gray" elephants. Ah, well. Here is what I posted.

We had a great day at the zoo. Wonderful weather. The traffic was a bit hectic and I lost my way while driving to the Interstate leaving the zoo, but I soon righted myself. I told my daughter, forget the map, I will follow my nose. I turned right one time and there in front of us was the exit to the very by-pass we were looking for. I've driven to Cleveland many times to the zoo, museum, theatre - so I just followed my gut feelings.

This is a day for cleaning and getting ready for the party, so I must get to work.

Motherly advice

Fuzzy picture because I used my maxium zoom (12x) of the Mother Bird and baby on my neighbor's landscaping trim.

The other morning, I am thinking it was Saturday, I went out onto my front porch to retrieve the paper and saw a baby bird making quite a mess as birds are prone to do (if you know what I mean). I noticed he wasn't moving and I opened the door. He hopped off the porch across the part of the yard between my house and my neighbors and attempted to fly. He smacked into the side of their house and just barely missed falling into their window well. He landed on their landscaping trim next to a coleus and there he remained for about an hour.

Mother Bird was nearby encouraging him. He had no tail that I could see. Maybe this comes later? My daughter and I watched him for about an hour and the Mother Bird kept feeding him worms and chirping what was either warnings or encouragement. Eventually I took my own Mother's advice and left nature alone. When we looked outside later he and the Mother Bird were gone. I really hope that he figured out how to fly and nothing bad happened to him.

For a lady who lived her first 20 years secluded on a small family farm in West Virginia and later raised 8 children in Ohio my Mother was quite worldly in her wisdom. I expected her to know things about farm life and wild animals, but other things surprised me.

One job I worked at the boss was accused of perjury. Mom Mom explained that term to me and told me all about how he got kickbacks in the business. At the time I was 23 and didn't much think about it (my Mom was a walking encyclopedia), but as the years unfolded I often wondered how she knew so much. Reading, I guess. Her television consisted of soap operas (until she shut them off for good because of their racy story lines) and sci fi.

Aw heck. Who knows? Maybe she obtained her worldly knowledge from the soaps. LOL!

We are on our way to the Cleveland zoo today. Daughter's pick.

Clouds in my head

I was sitting at my table this morning drinking my second cup of coffee, reading the Sunday paper and it started. That sick feeling in my head. Ugh, I thought. I got myself something to eat. Some starch. I tried to ignore it while reading the rest of the paper. I became irritated with the puzzle. I didn't know many of the answers. I found myself starting to read articles and then getting exasperated and moving on. Double ugh. I was getting real queasy, now. I took a migraine pill.

There is a time in every one's life when they know they are going to be sick and they just want to get it over with. Throw up and you feel better, right? Not with a migraine. Most of the time there is nothing to throw up and if you do, you don't feel better. In my case it makes my head pound until it feels like it is going to shoot off of my neck and shoulders like some clown out of a circus cannon. A lot of times I wish it would. Right into the toilet.

I went outside and sat in the shady side of the house and proceeded to weed the area around my moonflowers. My gosh it was a beautiful morning. I tried hard to ignore the feeling that was clouding my head. I took deep breaths of wonderfully clean air. The front door opened. My daughter asked if we could go canoeing today. My heart sank. Damn, stupid migraines! I told her I wasn't feeling well. She said "okay" and went back inside. I know first hand the epitome of "bursting someones bubble." You just take the joy right out of their face with one word. Migraine. It sucks. It sucks big time. Oh, sorry Mom. My Mom hated that word. I do too, but it just seems appropriate for the way I feel right now.

It has been over an hour and I have sipped a glass of alka seltzer. Trying, trying. I sit quietly at the computer with my bedroom windows open and the fans running to make it blessedly cool in here. I backed up all the pictures and work I did over the month of June onto my external hard drive. I should backup more often, but there you have it.

The eyes hurt. The back of my neck where it meets the base of my skull hurts. The temples hurt. Not a sharp pain, a dull yet annoying pain. I noticed something that I started doing years ago. I like to doodle. I would find myself drawing the parts of my body that were in pain. If my heel hurts, I would draw a foot and point to the part of the heel that was in pain. If my back hurt, same thing. I drew thousands of pictures of a person's head and the area of pain that I would be experiencing at the time.

I have just completed the head rolling, neck stretching and shoulder crunches. I even try arm flapping. Anything to get some blood flowing to my brain. Bring relief, bring relief! Trying, trying. Nauseated, I stop. Back to quiet. More fresh air is needed. Second day of vacation, not so good. Humph! I cleaned all day yesterday. See? I knew that cleaning makes me sick. Mental note to self: cut back on cleaning. LOL! Sense of humor? check.