Coming soon

May 2006 Ants on a Peony

In a couple of weeks, I should have buds on my peonies. The April rains have watered them properly, I suppose - and now they are ready for some May sunshine. Well, maybe a few more days of rain.

I mowed (for the second time already!) my grass....I mean my dandelions. My yard has been inundated with the yellow weed. Maybe I will get a head start next year and mow my grass much sooner so that the plant does not have time to dig in. I'm sure my neighbors loved me last evening. As I mowed, the seeds from the flower blew all over the neighborhood. Ahh.

At least I got a second mowing in before our trip this week-end. The folks that are staying at my house to care for the pets won't be doing any mowing. No cleaning, either.

The party for June is beginning to take shape. I will be skipping my annual 4th of July bang. Who knows? I might cave in and throw it anyway. I told family to make other plans - kind of do their own thing. It gives them a break. Every year - same thing. Peruby's house for the 4th (because you can see the town's fireworks from my front yard). Well, anymore it is getting more and more difficult. Every year we threaten to cut those trees down.

Things are quiet at work. Very quiet. My co-worker has taken the week off sick. The beginning of the end? Maybe.

Wild, wonderful

West Virginia

Some family and I are headed south this week-end. Back to our roots in wild, wonderful West Virginia. We are planning a family reunion on my father's side in August. We are heading down to check out the shelter area and make plans.

The above photo is the cemetery where my father is buried. We don't think he was ever really happy in Ohio. When my parents and others moved to Ohio in the 40's some only stayed a few years, then returned. My Mom refused. She had no family left in the hills of West Virginia.

All 8 of my Mom's children were born in Ohio. I have maybe one aunt (by marriage) that remains in the mountain state. The rest are cousins. Lots of cousins. I may get to see just how many this year.

When we were kids (it took us two cars) we would visit every summer. It was great. We explored all over town. They had RR tracks and a train that went through the little town, directly across from my Aunt's house. I can still remember the train whistle blowing at night and the clickety clack of the cars running along the tracks. It was very mysterious and exciting for me.

They had an old, working hand pump in the back yard. We found it fascinating down there. They had bees and we would bring back honey. And my Aunt made jelly and always gave me a little jar of apple jelly - it was my favorite. We would have to be careful. If we said we liked anything, she was wrapping it up and giving it to us. I am so glad I didn't say anything about the glass cake holder. That would have been a little too much for a ten year old.

Her house was well lived in. It was just full of furniture and stuff that would be there from year to year. We would return and everything would be in exactly the same place and my Aunt would be sitting in her rocking chair in the enclosed sun porch where we would all gather around and talk. Next to that dreadful gas heater. Between the long car ride (none of my sisters and brothers ever wanted to ride in the same car as me, because I was the one who got car sick) and the smell of that gas heater, I was always ready for the outside excursions.

The house was full of old stuff. Calendars from the 50's and so much glass. Two things I didn't care for was the smell of natural gas and the spittoons. Mostly it was a big empty Maxwell House coffee can. My Mom always told us kids, "Do not get between folks and the coffee can." Yuck.

I think the coffee cans are long gone. The houses we visit now are more modern. The hospitality is the same. The pictures are nostalgic. I wonder if they have pictures of me and my siblings from the 60's and wonder who we are. I know I do when I go through the old family album. I will copy the old black & white photos and paste them onto a big poster board for the reunion and maybe I'll finally get to meet some of those kids I have looked at all of these years.

A little out of focus

The picture I snagged of one of my tulips on Saturday morning appeared a little out of focus. But, that's okay because I feel as if my life is a little out of focus right now, too.

I am dragging because I have been up for over an hour and the sleep monster is trying to drag me back down. A shower should take care of that monster. If I give in and doze back off, I may feel worse than if I don't.

It was a two party Saturday and a stay home Sunday. I made lasagna. My niece (the one that lived with us for five years) came to visit. At least she likes my cooking. My daughter was gone all day. She won't touch my lasagna.

Work has become very quiet and sedate. The schools are beginning to gear down for the summer. Not purchasing anything, not starting anything new. Usually there are a lot of updates during the summer but I am thinking the poor economy may have squelched any projects of that nature. Any that involve money, that is.

Since my early morning insomnia is an on-going event, I grab towels and my robe as soon as I get up in the morning in preparation for me to go downstairs and shower. I know that if I had to walk back into my bedroom and grab my robe right now, I would collapse back into bed.

I drink coffee every morning. I can doze in between cups. The caffeine seems to have no effect on me. However, if I skip my morning coffee the head begins to complain. Something fierce.

I was very busy this week-end though. I re-financed on Saturday. Dropped an entire percent from my loan. I kept the same number of years and lowered my payment by about 50 dollars a month. No closing cost! My bank picked up everything! Everything! It was a no-brainer. Sweet.

On Sunday I went over the daughter's graduation party again. Who to invite, what foods to have, so on and so forth. The date has finally been chosen. I am going to skip my annual fourth of July party. Next is to get the invitations made. One month to graduation. Don't panic.

One shot for my daughter, please

As if scars aren't bad enough, a keloid develops. The break is over. Six months. Back to the surgeries and the scars. And the lovely keloids. I will make an appointment at Akron Children's Hospital for the removal of three moles. Oh, excuse me "Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron". How can I forget it's proper name when my insurance agent was so adamant that I get it right!?

For over forty years everybody in Ohio has known the establishment as Akron Children's, but when I called my insurance company last year they kept telling me that the hospital does not exist. The web site lists it as Akron Children's, all the nurses, doctors and any other personnel in the state of Ohio calls it by "Akron Children's". Why would I even dream it had another name? When the agent finally figured out that it was listed in her database under "Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron" she was irate and told me that I need to give her the correct name. Good grief.

So my daughter got a shot of cortisone in the keloid. Why doesn't blogger's dictionary recognize this word? It stung and we hope that the growth subsides just leaving the scar. How did the girls in my daughter's gym class put it? "Did you get shot!?" I guess my daughter's back looks like she was shot with rifle spray. How many now? 12.... 15? Dysplastic nevus (nevi).

When my daughter told the dr. she wanted three new ones removed, the dr. kept saying "If you think she needs them removed." I had three separate doctors say that "Yes" the moles need to come off when we started this madness five years ago. Now they aren't so certain. What? Did the Medical Association publish an article saying that maybe they were removing too many moles unnecessarily? Like hysterectomies in the 80's? Now the doctor is leaving it up to me. Oh, excuse me. Up to my daughter. She is 18, now. She can decide for herself. We went from "These moles have to be removed!" a couple of years ago to "Well, if you think it's necessary."

Every mole removed has been tested and come back benign. I have wondered through the years if this was really necessary? What do you do when three different doctors say "Yes." I did not intentionally seek out different opinions. I am not that obsessive.

The first doctor that alerted us was rude and my daughter did not like him at all. She was 12 or 13 and this guy just creeped her out. So we found a female dermatologist. She agreed. The moles needed to come out. After about six removals I asked my family doctor. She agreed they need to come out. After so many we started to go to a plastic surgeon. He didn't really give an opinion - he just removed the ones in the more delicate areas.

When my daughter had a rash in January that doctor just freaked out. Why did she have them removed? Who did that job? We got the impression that the job was ugly and messy. Thanks doc. Made us feel like crap. Seriously. You think that doctors would have better reaction skills. They should teach that in medical school.

Am I rambling? Probably. I am tired and I am starting to get angry. My daughter wants them off. They have her afraid that every little mole is a potential door to cancer and death for her.

Did you know that virtually every prom dress made has no back to it? My daughter (like me) does not care for the hoopla of prom anyway. Good thing. Every now and then I would hear my daughter mention tanning lotion. She would put some on because as we have had it drilled into our heads for five years now, tanning beds and sunning are death.

I always hated the sun anyway. Anyone with migraines will tell you this. Sunshine equals headache. I shunned the sun. I was lily white. At 43 I began going to a tanning bed. Wow! I loved it. Especially on cold, rainy days. That stopped cold when my daughter was forbidden to go. They said it would be certain death. Or, they made her fear it as much.

I know it is for the better. I know this. It doesn't help my daughter when she compares herself to all the girls in school that are bronzed and showing their backs in their beautiful flowing prom dresses.

That is more or less why I let my daughter go wild with her hair. And by wild, I mean blond, black and red. Whooppee. No green, blue, orange, pink or purple. So the red faded a little and looked like magenta. So they said. I got a different definition of magenta. Nope. The school stopped that real quick. I got an idea. Why don't they make the kids stop tanning? Now there would be a worthwhile rule. Save a life! Color your hair, not your skin! I've got to stop. I'm getting belligerent.

Red, Gold and Green

I heard an old song on the radio the other day. A blast from the past. "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club. I couldn't find who exactly wrote the song. I didn't search very long. It has a catchy tune and beat and I love red, gold and green.

Am seeing lots of green these days. I started to mow for the first time this year, only to be met by a downpour when I wheeled the mower out of the garage. I put it away and went inside. Washed my hands, turned around and the sun was shining again. Go figure. Ohio.

We watched Lakeview Terrace. It was okay.

Got ten minutes?

My sister and I went to visit another sister on Saturday. The one in prison. We had never been before. We went to my nephew's house the night before so we could get an early start. We had a GPS but still managed to get turned around a couple of times. We arrived at 9:40. The guards would not let us enter. We needed to be there by 9:30. (I do recall the day I made the reservation they said we needed to be there by 10:30) but do you think that the guards cared? Not one iota. Did they care that we had travelled so far? You guessed it. No they did not.

We turned around and said that we would probably laugh about it one day.

We could not get word to my sister. She called me at home later that evening and I was able to explain what happened. She said "That is typical for that place."

Sigh. We will try again. It took me about 70 phone calls before I could get through the last time.

D, D and a peony

I should be seeing this type of activity in the next month or so.

That's the peony. Now for the "D's". My co-worker gave me some news yesterday. It starts with a "d" and ends with a "y" and in between is 'isabilit'.

The other "D". I watched 'Doubt'. It was okay. I was interrupted about ten times and kept having to pause the movie. Maybe I should watch it again. It is set in 1964 so the repression of women bothers me a little bit. Streep was good. I thought that halfway through the movie the Father changed unnaturally from an 'I am superior' attitude to one of submission. Maybe that was how it was meant to look, but it didn't seem to fit.

And, of course. I didn't like the ending. It left me flat. I expected more, I guess.

Gonna go round in circles

Our park will be opening at the end of May for rides.

And it is back to work for me today. I have been off since April 2nd. I logged into email yesterday so that I wouldn't have too much stress this morning. I hate surprises. Back to the grind. Up and down. Round and round. Any chance my co-worker has taken a vow of silence? Probably not.

Company

My daughter will be here for Easter, as well as my nephew. I don't think my niece will make it down from Toledo. So, when my sister called I invited her. Her family has mushroomed in the last month. Not only is her son staying with her but his new girlfriend and her two children plus my sister's daughter and her little one (above). Ooookay.

Still cleaning. My daughter's bedroom is back in order and I am trying to focus on the downstairs laundry room area. My back only lets me work in spurts. I rest it as often as I can. I have not watched any movies, but I did download the latest House episode from Monday and watch it. My daughter was busy with friends over that night and it was a bit chaotic around here. This is the episode where one of the main characters committed suicide.

I used utorrent to watch the show and the characters all sounded like they had a serious lisp. Especially House. It was a bit hard to understand what they were saying. My daughter and I run closed caption on our television all the time. Some visitors complain, but we still do it. We are surprised at how much we actually miss them saying when it isn't on.

This was the first time I used utorrent and I don't think I'll be using it again. I didn't care for it.

Through the years

My daughter (little to big) through the years.

It was a morning of heavy and strenuous work. The day bed (with a trundle) was finally leaving. My daughter slept in it when she was little. The futon had never been used. Both were leaving. Good riddance. I started at 8 a.m. My brother was to arrive at 9:00. He didn't get here until 10:00. My back had time to recuperate. The lower back was thumping pretty hard when I finally sat down to rest.

After he hauled them away I was outside in the beautiful sunshine sweeping the leaves and pine needles off the patio. The windows in my house were closed. I heard the most God-awful screaming. I threw the broom down and ran (okay, hobbled) inside. My daughter was crying. She and her on-again/off-again boyfriend were into it big time. I picked up her cell phone. He was inconsolable. I have told her that she cannot keep playing him along like this. One day she calls it quits, the next day he is over here. We had gone round and round.

I felt absolutely horrible but after 10 minutes of trying to reason with him I had to hang up on him. He said that he had no one to talk to. Nobody to turn to. I turned her cell phone off and hid it in the garage. I unplugged the house phones. My daughter demanded her cell phone back. I told her to go and settle down. She slammed her bedroom door and all was peaceful and quiet the rest of the day. She calmed down. I hope he did, too. It was just awful. I remember well what the pain was like. I wanted to tell him it gets easier. But does it?

I told her she was part of the problem. She gets tired of me harping at her. She says "I know, Mom!" Ah, the life. The drama. She is 18, he is 17. I wish that his family had not "home-schooled" him. He is still a freshman academic-wise. I don't think he is learning very many social skills. I think he may be emotionally crippled and immature. I believe in school they learn much more than an education. They learn how to get along in life. How to cope with disappointment. Eventually they see what it is like to have to "put up" with teachers and other things that do not go your way. In school the students have to learn to "Get over it!"

He grew dread locks. He has his ear gauged. He has piercings in his nose, in his lower lip and I don't even want to know where else. All in the past year. This was too much even for my daughter who is very liberal and tries not to judge others by their appearance. She thinks it is unhealthy because I believe he does the piercings himself. I think he tried to pierce his own tongue. They broke up for 9 months last year. I really thought they both had moved on. Oh, well. Big sigh. This too shall pass. Please let it be without incident.

Visitor

This huge dog came to visit on Monday. She belongs to my daughter's on again/off again boyfriend. We were cleaning and she didn't help much. He was a big help. We have moved furniture around in my daughter's bedroom to make room for her new bed. My brother is coming to take away some older furniture tomorrow but until then we have to walk/work/live around it. Ugh. I've stubbed my toe more times than I care to count. Ouch.

My daughter and a bunch of her friends went to a hip/hop dance club Monday night (after midnight so my daughter could get in). I was worried. I am glad I did not look at the site before they went, I would have been a basket case. It looks positively wild. They had a blast. They had one big dude with them (the rest were girls). I shook my head in utter disbelief. I told them to be careful. They were all 18. They went to IHOP afterwards.

They had plenty of stories to tell me the next day (thankfully, nothing bad happened). I am hoping they got this out of their system and will stay closer to home, but I doubt it. By the sound of it they had a great time and there is nothing around here. Nothing.

There are more blankets and sheets to wash. The cats have shed all over stuff in the basement. This is probably as close to spring cleaning as I ever get.

::Movie Spoiler Alert!::

Oh, I almost forgot. I watched 'Burn After Reading'. What? Who? Why? What were they thinking? Who in their right mind would write it? And why would any self-respecting actor be a part of it? I found out that McDormand is married to the writer/director so she has to be involved by proxy, I guess. I have to give Pitt a little bit of credit here for playing a character I'd not ever seen him play before. He played a dolt. He pulled it off okay, I guess. Malkovich was his usual crass self. Jenkins played his usual sad sack. And, I truly believe that Clooney is Middle Eastern. I think his acting is just ridiculous. I don't know. I guess I don't watch them in movies enough to know if they stretched their acting range or not. I was absolutely nauseated by the entire thing. And, half the time I wasn't sure which basement they were breaking into. And who left the CD at the club was a mystery for half of the movie.

I also watched 'Milk'. I could have read about the incident and got just as much out of the story. Which I did read up on it after the movie. I would have liked the movie to have focused a little bit more on the reasoning behind White's motive for shooting Milk and the mayor. Why was White so angry with them? After I read their stories on wikipedia it made more sense to me.

My Generation

Closing in on the 18. She is going with friends to a Hip Hop club. They are going after midnight so she can get in. Then to IHOP. I'm sitting here with my headphones on because the music is cranked and tongues are talking 100 mph all around me. Mountain Dew will do that. The weather is nasty, but no accumulation is expected.

Stella Sierra

One beer called Stella Artois and one called Sierra Nevada. I drank the one called Stella. One. At the bar. At the restaurant I drank a Madras (vodka, orange juice and a splash of cranberry juice). One.

I had the orange roughy. A bit salty but still good.

The bar scene was such a drag for me. It got crowded. How do these people do it? How did I do it twenty/thirty years ago? It was so hot in there. The wind was howling outside and spitting snow. Inside it felt like a sauna. People just stood around, spilled drinks on one another and you had to squeeze yourself between bodies to go to the restroom.

I mixed it up with a table of drinkers next to our table also drinking Stella Artois beer. I kept doing a rendition of "Stella!" from 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. They would laugh and scream the name back to me. What can I say? I was bored out of my skull. Only the folks in the three foot vicinity could hear above the din, so it was harmless fun. And, they seemed pretty drunk. The men were in suits (albeit rumpled and loosened ties), so it looks like they had been drinking since they left work at 5 or so.

I drank ice water for most of the night. I wanted to pour it over my head. I discovered I liked (at least) one song by "The Black Keys". I am trying to find it's name so I can download it. The group is from Akron. Close. I think the song I heard is "Things Ain't Like They Used To Be". Not sure. It sure sounds like another song. I keep waiting for them to sing "Don't bring me down..."

After trying the other songs out on YouTube, I won't be purchasing a whole lot from this group.

Are we having fun yet?

A typical response from a 3-year-old at a mostly adult birthday party.