One Crazy Bird

crazy bird


My crazy bird. I zoomed in on her picture, flipped it around horizontally, created a negative and tinted it violet. Doesn't she look crazy? I have not given her very much attention (or him, I never got into what it really is). She and I talked a little bit tonight until she became irritated with me and began roughing me up a bit so I put her back into her cage. She doesn't like to stay up past nine o'clock. I was pushing it. My bad.

Squib

squib


Just what are they trying to say, here? I chose squib to describe it because I didn't think the word 'propaganda' was quite exact.

2nd Definition of squib:
A brief satirical or witty writing or speech, such as a lampoon.
A short, sometimes humorous piece in a newspaper or magazine, usually used as a filler.

Vidal Blanc

orange tree tops


I can still find some color contrast out there, but not for long. For one reason or another the song from The Mamas and the Papas keeps running through my head :

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California Dreaming....

I have never been to California. When my sister and I were in El Paso (she was in the Army), we talked about driving over to San Diego and sticking our big toe in the Pacific ocean just to say we touched it or something.

Today, I was not rushed like I have been. I treated myself to a nice, sit-down lunch here. I did not sample any of the wines, but I purchased a bottle recommended by the waitress. I am having a glass of Vidal Blanc, now. It is quite good. I am drinking it warm. I will chill it for my next glass, maybe tomorrow evening. I did have it with cheese (cheesecake). I think I ruined the taste. I am sure I did. I realize now that I should have picked up a wine stopper.

I am looking for gifts to give my sisters. Two sisters are wine drinkers, and two of us are beer drinkers. One drinks whiskey, vodka, rum and beer. My nephew is now engaged to a wine representative. Here is a description of that type of job. She is helping her future mother-in-law learn about the different types of wine. We are a bit ignorant on the subject to say the least.

Oooh. The wine list says 10% off of 12 bottles. If I get one bottle of each except the Vidal Blanc I can just about get one of each one except the one that is sold out and the fruit wines at the bottom. It doesn't say I have to limit myself to 12, I can get a bottle of each. That should make a nice collection to start with and then try them throughout the long winter months.

I still want to make our own wine here. Well, my glass is empty. :( Time for some fresh air.

One car ahead of you

deer


Well, the deer are out in full force. I picked my daughter up from a get together Saturday night and we stopped near our house to shoot some deer. It was very dark, so the photos aren't that great and they are a little grainy. But we (and they) were mesmerized.

I was driving yesterday and apparently wasn't going fast enough for somebody. He made a point to zoom around me and cut back right in front of me. I thought to myself "Gee, mister. In a hurry?" And, proceeded to forget him and returned to my dreamy drive of whatever I was thinking.

A few miles up the road we were stuck driving slowly behind a (oh, no) white van. Another white van! Yikes. A deer came from out of nowhere and hit the car (guy) that was in front of me. The deer was spun around, but she got up and bounded back from whence she came.

The guy in front of me came to a stop and must have been dazed. I waited for him to gather his senses to see if he was just going to sit in the roadway or pull to the side or continue on. He drove ahead a few feet and pulled over. I looked back at him in my rear view mirror. No damage to his car, he probably was just getting out to check it out and calm down. It could have been much worse.

A mile or so up the road, it dawned on me. If he hadn't shot around me, that could have been me that hit the deer! It was a sobering thought. So, the next time somebody cuts you off or becomes irritated at your driving too slow, smile and wave at them. Let them go.

Years ago when a driver zipped around me like that, with my daughter (then five) in the car, I looked over at her and we both had a kind of surprised look on our faces. I laughed and said "He must have the diarrhea!" Oh my God, she thought that was so funny. To this day when it happens we look at each other. "He must have the...." Mmmmhmmmm.

Which brings me back to a memory. During one of our day trips (I was always trying to bring some kind of educational vacation into my daughter's life), we went to Cosi in Columbus. I came upon an exhibit of a wrecked car in a cage. I read the story on the exhibit. I can't recall the details exactly, but in essence it read that there were four teenagers in the car. In the seconds of the accident, the passenger in the front seat reached down and pulled up on the hand brake.

This simple act resulted in the back of the car hitting a tree and killing the two in the back, letting the two up front live. If the passenger had not applied the brake, the opposite would have happened. Or the other way around, I don't recall the exact details. And, I don't have any idea how they figured this out, but they are a respected science center and certainly know more than I about these things.

And the story said, "So is our destiny fate or pre-determined?" Or, something similar. It got me to thinking. And, I came to the conclusion (for me, anyway) it is fate. Why? How did I come to this conclusion? Because if our fate is pre-determined, then why do people run and hide from a sniper? Why not just walk calmly out in the open saying to yourself "Hey, if it's my time to go , it's my time to go." Yeah. You can find me in the bushes.

Postcards from the edge

postcard


I made a postcard with my brother's pictures on it from the family album. I put in a couple of little cute pics from when he was about seven and one when he was about ten. Then a much older one of thirty-something. I made a small collage and printed them as a postcard. I went to my home office today and thought it would be perfect to mail it from an out-of-town post office and not sign my name to it. Just a smiley face on the back.

So, to do that I had to figure out the closest post office to my home office.

My inside voice said, 'Well, you know it is just 500 feet from that place.'

Me: "That place?"

My inside voice, 'Come on. You know where. That place.'

Me: "Oh! That place. Well, I can handle it if you can."

So I drove on to the post office. Mailed the post card and bought a few extra post card stamps in case I want to torture any other family with a postcard. (evil little laugh).

I got back in my car. I was trying very hard to ignore my inside voice. 'You're going to be driving right past it. You are already starting to get shaky.'

Me: Big sigh."Okay, I can do this."

I drove onto the highway. Just about 500 feet.

My inside voice: 'Oh, yeah! They made it into a dollar store. Go ahead and stop. Look around. You can always pick up something at the dollar store.'

It was kind of ironic that it was now a dollar store. Twenty-five years ago it was an Ace Hardware/Automotive store. One of the busiest places you could ever find on a Saturday morning. You could always find me there every Saturday morning, too. Sometimes hung over, sometimes bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

I slowly inched my car into the parking lot.

Inside voice: 'Go on. Park over there. Where you parked for over three years.'

My car wouldn't go that far. It stopped in a little space out front. My palms were beginning to sweat.

I gathered my purse and tried to gather my senses. I looked at the building. It had such a strange effect on me. They had split it in to two separate businesses. One side was completely closed. Of course it is going to look smaller to me, now. My very first office job one month out of high school. This is where I went instead of college.

My first loves were a part of this building. Maybe this is the way some people feel about their high schools. Maybe I was a late bloomer. High Schools have reunions, you can go back and see the people that had such an impact on you. Thank God work doesn't do that. I could barely get out of the car and it had been twenty-five years.

I walked up to the door looking for anything that would trigger my memory. They came flooding back. I opened those double doors almost every morning. Entering the first time and locking them behind me so that I could set the business up. I was usually the first one there. Setting up the cash registers, counting the money. Getting the lights turned on. Then about an hour later, opening the doors for business. Greeting the cashiers and my boss (the owner) and the Automotive manager.

I remember our alarm systems. Setting them, accidentally triggering them. Sneaking in one night to use the bathroom and making sure I turned the alarm off and back on before I left. Naughty. Just once! Then to find out months later that my boss received a monthly record of all the times the alarm had been set and disarmed. He never said a word to me.

Well, I doubt that I would see the usual flow of men that I used to in the building, now. I looked around and saw little old ladies and other assorted women shopping amongst the air fresheners and cleaning supplies. No smell of auto grease and oil, no rubber smell of tires, no grease monkeys coming in wearing their worn out jeans, scuffed-up boots and ballcaps.

The dollar store was packed with cheap plastic Christmas decorations and wrapping paper and towels and kitchenware. So much stuff in that little store. I don't even think I saw what was in the first two aisles, as I was so nervous. Waiting for somebody familiar to walk around the corner. My feet felt as though I was walking in knee-high wet sand. I seriously thought a sales lady was going to ask me if I was alright. I felt weak and a bit nauseous.

It did get better, though. I began to breathe easier. Once I realized that no old boyfriend was going to come sauntering around the end of an aisle. I moved back to the far corner of the store. Way back. They had it blocked off with a big wall but this was where I would go to my office. My very own office from eighteen to twenty-one. I looked at the wall. It was full of cheap but colorful plastic flowers you put on gravesites. How appropriate. A memory bouquet. Three Dog Night drifted into my head.

"I've got pieces of April
I keep my memory bouquet"

I swallowed hard. I circled the store a couple more times walking aimlessly. Looking for anything that would tell the world 'I was here.' But, there was nothing. I looked at the floor and tried to remember if it was the same tile. The building had begun to split. They had built that section on right when I started working there. And now, it was beginning to split away from the original building. As if breaking away was hard even for the concrete.

I still keep in touch with one of my very best friends from that era. She and I met working there and remained friends over the past 25 years. I need to call her. Such good, good times.

I finally made it to the check-out counter. My purchase was placed in a cheap barely-there plastic bag. I handed over my money and received my change. I headed for the door. What had I bought? Oh, a box of trash bags. How appropriate. I got into my car and slowly drove away with a lump in my throat. Where were they now? Those crazy, crazy people.

Down on the farm

white farm


Down on the farm in Harrison county, Ohio.

My sister was sitting at my house and overheard a telephone conversation between my daughter's boyfriend and his dad. The boyfriend is thirteen and getting his very first paycheck, that I know of. He was part of the Halloween stalker thrill. He was asking his dad to drive him to the place so he could pick up his paycheck. My sister said she heard him say "I'll pay you five dollars to take me up there." A pause and then he said, "Okay, six dollars." It is probably twenty miles there.

The boy will be fourteen in December. I found it kind of harsh that the father would charge his son gas money to do this. The boy rode with friends to the work and back. His parents never took him, not once.

My gut reaction was 'Holy cow! Give the kid a break!' My sister and I were going to a party, so I didn't offer to take him. I guess some could say that the parents are making him more responsible. I don't know. Maybe they are mad this week-end and it is just a one time incident. He does call them to pick him up at our house once and a while. Sometimes they do. He didn't seem phased by it, so why should I.

I just dropped my daughter off at the mall to meet him and his friend. We saw them walking. My daughter didn't want me to pick them up. She said just drop her off at the main doors and she would meet them. I do love the cell phone, she can call me when she needs me.

My daughter's friend from yesterday's post did not stay over last night. They are not fighting, just taking different paths at this time. Her friend seems to want a different lifestyle than my daughter, and my daughter is okay with that. The friend calls herself "emo". Then there are the "posers". There - now you have some teenage lingo under your belt. Whoo-Hoo!

Fade away

fading


I am sad when a friendship fades awayyy ...

Edit: I should tell you that is my daughter and her good friend pictured above. My daughter is on the left. Don't be alarmed by the eye make-up on her friend. That is "cool" to wear make-up like that these days. Okay. I also found out that they are still very good friends. Big sigh of relief. Seems that the friend had a boyfriend for two weeks that smokes. My daughter hates smoke (like me). So, they kind of went their separate ways for a while. Now, the friend is not seeing this boy anymore and she is back to hanging with my daughter and her regular crowd. She should be back "home" this evening and I will see her familiar face lounging in my living room again by tomorrow morning. I'll tell her my usual "It's about time you came home! I don't know who you think you are young lady, but around here we don't just wander off and not let anybody know where we are or who we are with!" She will smile and say "Sorry, Mom!" And, I'll beat her with a wet noodle. All will be back to normal.

One Last Hurrah

orange tree


Friends want to get together this Saturday night at the camper on the lake. Where I get the beautiful sunset pictures on the lake. One last hurrah before they close the camper up for the winter.

I keep forgetting to watch the weather channel for the week-end. I don't know if it is going to be sunny or rainy on Saturday. Warm or cold. I just turned the weather channel on. They are doing the weather in Europe. Great. Okay, try www.weather.com and type in my zip code. Yuck! Never mind. Rain and a high of 66, low of 55. Blah!

Now, it used to be when I was twenty-something, I could sit around a camp fire. Rain or not with a beer in hand and smile. But at forty-something, I think I'll pass. I may go to visit for an hour or two, but when that sun goes down, there I go. Even if we pump 70's music I am not sure I am going to sit outside in the rain. Or on the porch where the dampness seeps in my bones.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have to make a mental note to change the batteries in my smoke alarms tomorrow! My brother is a fireman and that was my first housewarming gift. I had already purchased a carbon monoxide detector. I have a fire place in the basement.


I caught a show on Nova Tuesday night. Where 1800 people were killed by CO2 poisoning. The show was about a volcano and the lakes near it. Lake Nyos released the deadly gas in a cloud so thick and big it covered a nearby town, killing every living being in it's path. I had no idea. It makes me wonder what I was doing in August of 1986. I was living in Virginia. I probably didn't watch the news very much, but I do remember when Reagan issued an attack against Gaddafi in April of that same year, so I wasn't exactly under a rock.

I do recall living in a small one-bedroom apartment. I was office manager at a lumber company. My boyfriend and I would get company all during the summer from both sides of the family, being that we lived forty minutes from Virginia Beach. That was the only time I went to the ocean, is when relatives would come to visit. I shunned the sun. It was a bit too hot for me. We were more into the night life, anyway.

I am not a beach person. I like the trees and fresh water lakes. Mountains and camp fires.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I recorded Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds onto my pc. I have filled up the 400 gig hard drive. I have to find some stuff to delete, or open that other half back up and stop mirroring. I can't believe I would fill it up so fast. Oh, well. I don't like Psycho . I do like Rear Window. I don't think I would have liked the man Alfred Hitchcock. He sounds like he was a real pain in the arse.

I just checked. My largest movie is The Perfect Storm coming in at 4.35GB. Most of them are compressed, I don't know what happened with this one. Some are compressed to 1.8GB and 2.8GB. Some are going to go because I don't even like them. (Such as The Perfect Storm). The Birds, I recorded off of my cable. It is a whopping 4.18GB. I noticed that it filled up the dvd. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to finalize it, but it did. I like to watch them and freeze frame them in certain parts. Like I have time to do that anymore. It was fun for a while, but now I just copy them onto the hard drive and most likely never look at them again. Sigh. Why must I hoard stuff?

At the top of the hill

autumn fencepost


I skipped lunch today. This is one of the reasons why. I stopped on top of a hill of an old dirt road. Some guy in a jeep went past me back and forth. I guess he was wondering what I was doing. Maybe he finally saw my camera, I don't know.

In a community close by some Amish children told their parents about a guy pointing something at them from a car. They called the police. When the sheriff caught up to the guy they found out he was taking pictures for a calendar. They let him go.

That will probably be me someday. I'm pretty harmless. I don't want to make a calendar or make any money off of the pics. I like money as much as the next person, I just don't have the drive to do it. I like to look and share.

After a day of this my eyes feel as though they have been bathed in visine. Bliss.

Autumn Gold

autumn gold


The day started out with some sun. It became darker and cloudier and by the time I headed home it was pouring rain. Glad I mowed yesterday.

I caught some gold on the hillside before the rains came. I framed them in gold.

I ended up with seven trick or treaters. That beat last year's two candy goblins. I dressed for the kiddies. I read where the kids like it when the person handing out the candy also dresses for the occasion. Why not?

I watched some suspenseful Hitchcock yesterday. The Birds and Psycho. Black and white. Recorded them. My daughter and her boyfriend are watching Psycho.

My sister wants to get some of the family and go here this week-end. We celebrated my fortieth there. It was fun, but not my cup of tea. I had a migraine and spent most of the evening in the non-smoking room which is small and away from the big Speakeasy. I would go if I had more time to plan, more money to spend and if my daughter were just a couple of years older.

Here we will picture it in Autumn brass:

autumn brass


How about a wooden gold?

wooden gold

Yo Momma!

lake tappan fall


At long last my waiting is over. I finally had the perfect day and the perfect opportunity to get some beautiful lake/foliage shots. I am sneaking this one on-line during my lunch hour. I drove to Tappan Lake area to meet a co-worker for parts.

On the drive back, I was stopped during road construction. What do you know?! This is what I saw out my drivers side window. Believe it or not! ;0

Einstein and Marilyn Monroe

einstein joke


Click on the image to read the chalkboard. This is one of my favorite jokes. (My favorite jokes are all the ones I can remember without messing them up!) You can make your own Einstein chalkboard message here.

I borrowed this from Peace of My Mind.

I made up about 25 of them, and posted them on my Photos page on my web site. Link can be found on the right of this blog page.

I am determined to get some work accomplished today, so I am signing off!

End of the surgeries (we hope)

setting sun burst


I thought this was a fitting photo taken from the parking lot of the dermatologist. This was our last visit for mole removal. The doctor decided to wait this one out. We have to go back for check ups, but hopefully - no more surgeries. Yay!

It is a beautiful sunny day out. I am going to go and see if I can find a pretty park to take some pictures. I never get enough of the beauty out there.

Friday foliage

friday foliage


A little drive, a little sun, a lot of work, but nothing done! Drat! Curses to fvc switches! Curses! You don't know how many times I have re-named the acronym fvc. Grrrrrr!

Black Cat

black cat


My big black Halloween cat. I just finished watching Black Cat, White Cat. Well, I lost interest after fifteen minutes. Subtitles. Yuck. Are people insane to like this foreign comedy? I watched bits and pieces as I baked a pumpkin pie and talked to my sister on the telephone. I found it revolting to say the least. Revolting.

No pics of the foliage today. Too busy and it was cloudy the times I was out and about. Maybe tomorrow. I don't know.

My daughter was laughing at me the other evening. I was sitting in my t.v. chair, and I had the dog to the left of my feet, one cat to the right. One cat in my lap and the other cat stretched out behind me on the head rest of the chair. I hadn't noticed. I told her, "Well, WHO feeds them?" It does make it hard to get up though. I have to send fur flying everywhere.

The picture posted above was as "outside" as my cat got this summer. All my pets are "fixed" and that doesn't sit well with the wild strays out in the real world. It also worries me that some strange creeps look for black cats around this time of year. Not my baby, they'll have to get through me first.

Daisy Loo is still out there, looking a bit weathered. Maybe I will get her a friend at the store this week-end. I saw one of the orange/red lit trees on a neighbor's porch the other day. It was pretty, but too pricey for me. I did get some purple lights and I have a purple spider web to put up, yet. I did get my Casper jack-o-lantern and my blinking eyeballs. Nothing big, this year. Just not in the mood. Still battling a funky depression of sorts. Some people go all out for the decorating. Strobe lights and all. I don't think I need to tell you what I think of strobe lights. For me they are a big, fast slide right into migraine-city.

A co-worker told me he was going to get the chainsaw out again this year. He runs it without the blade in. He said he would only scare his son's friends and the older kids after I told him I thought he was sick. I said it half-joking because I know he doesn't mean any harm. But, when my daughter was five years old, we came upon a house who had somebody doing that and the kids were all too scared to go onto the porch to get the candy. I guess when you think about it, he isn't any worse than some of the others. What really freaks the little kids out (and us Mom's too) were the ones who sat stone still with the bowl of candy on their lap and when you went to reach for the goodies, they would move. Awww, I miss those days.

I don't have any good trick-or-treat stories that I can think of. I do remember driving to a party dressed up as the grim reaper. I did get a few looks, but people really should be expecting that sort of thing when it gets close to the day. That chain-saw co-worker told me once he got a package of saltine crackers in his sack. We laughed. It reminded me of Charlie Brown's "I got a rock." I did catch about five minutes of that show yesterday evening, too. "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." One of the classics.

Well, it's time to go and enjoy a piece of pumpkin pie with cool whip. Tis the season!

Fall foliage

foliage


My daughter did the picture taking on the trip north to the dermatologist. The sun was weak and very rare. At least it wasn't raining. Travelling to Cambridge and back today, I see that the trees are at their peak or close to it. The hills would look as if they are on fire if that sun would just step out from behind that cloud cover.

At the doctor's office, I signed the release form. The offending (last) mole was circled in ink and the doctor said - "Let's wait and see what it does." Silent disbelief. We can do that? My daughter was ecstatic. This was the trip her beau came along and she felt good enough to go out and eat afterwards. We went to her favorite place. Steak and Shake.

We will return to the doctor in three months to see how things are looking. We will also discuss plastic surgeons. My daughter is stretching the scars. She is very active in gym class and all and they are getting stretched. She does not participate in gym class for one week after the surgery, giving it time to heal, but because of the muscles in her back, they get stretched eventually.

My daughter wants to dress up as the red Fantana girl for Halloween this year. Yeah. Good luck with that. I can't sew. I was (am) not the home-ec type. If I tried to make the red outfit, I guarantee you it would end up looking more like the bottle of pop than the cute get-up the girl is wearing in the picture.

Here she is!

baby rylee dean


Finally, little one. I got to hold you all day long. You were the sweetest baby. No fussing, no shivering, no jumping. Just sweet little baby bliss.

More pictures on my photos link at the right side of this blog.

Great Aunt Peruby very tired.

Happy B'day Josh, where's Rylee D?

josh 3


One turns three today and we are waiting for another to arrive. Where are you Rylee? It is almost midnight and the doctor wanted you here before the morrow arrives. When I left the hospital after spending 13 hours there, she still had not arrived. It takes me about forty minutes to get home and still there is no word from my sisters.

Sometimes they just don't want to share their birthday with another. Stubborn girl!

Edit: Sunday, 10/23 at 9:45 a.m. - Appears that Rylee was being born the same time I left the hospital. My one sister did call me on the cell phone but since I was in an area that had no signal, it took the cell phone gods one hour until her voicemail appeard on my cell phone display. Shortly after I typed my post.

The sun will come out....

red tree


When? When will the sun come out? Will there be any leaves left on the trees when it does finally decide to come out? The drive I took yesterday would have been awesome if I had sun instead of rain. The leaves were in spectacular color if the light had only been on. As it is, I had to really touch them up and even then, only a few were worth looking at.

Why is it that on a day off from work, you get up at the normal time and don't feel sleepy at all? I was thinking, 'Oh, how nice. Friday morning I can get up, take care of the critters and crawl back into my warm, glorious bed.' Heck, no. I got ten movies from a friend and I began to put them on my hard drive. Yes, I filled up the 400gig hard drive. Now, should I remove RAID1 ? I actually have 2 400 gig hard drives. With RAID1, one drive mirrors the other exactly, so that if one fails, I have everything exactly the same on another drive.

Or, should I just delete some of my movies? How long would it take me to fill up the other 400 gig? This is ridiculous. I don't need this stuff. My nephew just shakes his head at me.

Anyway, it is another cold, grey and rainy day outside. I (wince) turned the heat up. It is toasty in here. I did the grocery shopping last evening, so we don't have to go anywhere. My daughter does want to go and see 'The Fog', but her friend doesn't. Her boyfriend does, so I may take the friend and we can go and see another one. That is if I don't get the urge to crawl back into bed.

I have already cleaned the kitchen. Living room was cleaned the day before yesterday. Bedroom could use a cleaning, but I may skip it. Bathroom will pass for now. Looks like a true vacation day coming up.

My daughter is having a blast with this game channel and playing along on the computer. She had her name put up during the show(s) twice now. I think someone is helping her sometimes with the answers. Somebody else logged on and playing the games along with the t.v. It has a chat area, users make comments and such.

She told me today that she is interested in Graphic Arts. Yes! That is where I was trying to steer her. I love art and I love computers. She is the same. We'll nourish this endeavor. They had speakers at her high school from some nearby Art Institutes. She creates pictures for RGB's. I think an RGB is a roll-playing game site of sorts. Users create a character (my daughter only does the horse sites) and they role play. The users tells the "creators" they want a black horse with white main/tail and they want him standing on the edge of the ocean and they want his name to be Whatever. My daughter takes the order and creates the image. If the end users likes it (they usually do) they thank my daughter and now they have an image to use with their role playing. Let's just say she gets a lot of practice.

What I find interesting is she has to "interview" or "audition" for a site. There are site administrators and my daughter submits some of her work and they "hire" her. There is no money involved, but it kind of imitates life. My daughter has to fill an order and she is pretty dedicated to it. She and her friend did a lot of role playing when they were about twelve years old. They outgrew that and now she creates the images for other sites. They even had their own RPG site that they ran for about five months. That was back in the day when all the computers were downstairs. My niece lived with us and she helped them along with my nephew. My daughter knew html long before I gave it a whirl.

I had Photoshop put on her PC that I purchased for her about three years ago. She blurs, blends and paints away. If it gets her a decent career that she dearly loves, I figure it is all worth it. As long as she doesn't burn out in the process. Therein lies her numerous trips over the hill to the Park Teen Center. Bike riding, playing pool, running with friends. Round it out.

Bowling Form

abowl

tbowl



cabowl


I am not a very good bowler. I have never been on a league. My daughter's boyfriend was on a league when he was smaller, so he has the better form. Wee Man (in white) is my daughter's friend's boyfriend. They had fun. They are all at a benefit for the boy who was murdered a month ago.

My camera battery is charging. If I don't say it too loudly and jinx it, I get to take a scenic drive tomorrow. Hopefully the sun will shine and the leaves will be in full force. Toes and fingers crossed.

Our local school is closed Friday and I took a vacation day. I asked my daughter today, "Why don't we have a pizza party for your friends? Invite a bunch over at around lunchtime, we will carve and/or paint pumpkins, make caramel apples, bob for apples and have pizza and pop." (Whoops, I accidentally typed poop.) The two beaus go to work at the Stalker at 5:30 so that gives them time to have some fun together with a few more added to the mix.

My daughter mumbles. She wants to go and see The Fog. I don't know if I am up for that movie. I may see another one or go shopping while they enjoy the movie. I will probably get up on Friday, get busy doing something else thinking we are going to the movies and my daughter will say "What time does the party start? Ten friends want to know." Aaagggghhh!

What's in your closet?

skeleton


I can vaguely hear the Amy Grant concert floating over the nighttime air. Yes, "Three Wishes" is still hanging around. The paper stated that a local school choir wished that their choir director could hear them sing. I guess she lost 70% of her hearing. The show granted their wish.

My daughter has found that she can play along with the gameshows on the web. While she watches them on the t.v. I never watched "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" when it was popular, but we watched it last evening and this evening. She has fun answering the questions on the web, while I help watching from the t.v. We cheat and use Google, but we aren't playing for money, just for fun. Some of them I know, some of them I think I know and some of them I have no idea! The other game is "Lingo" I had never heard of this one. We have fun and we are spending time together, well, sort of. Her boyfriend has been sick with a bad cold. He probably got chilled while working in that Stalker and ran his immune system down shivering.

Here is a good one for the record. He gets "Father of the year" award. Sounds to me like somebody was doing something they should not have been doing and is coming up with every dumb excuse in the book to try to weasel his way out of it.

In the mix

hot tub


Take one cold, rainy Saturday afternoon. Add a family gathering where the "old" people sit around and talk about old times. Mix in two bored teenage girls and throw them into the hot tub. Yessiree. Somebody was having a good time. Yields: 2 prunes.

Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin'

Atwood north


Here is Atwood lake from one of my escapades.

"Three Wishes" came to my hometown this past week-end. I stayed clear away from the frenzy. I caught myself wondering why anyone would go stand in line for hours and pitch their wish to this show. Me, I would be wishin' that somebody was cleaning my house while I was standing in line for hours. I think I understand the show's point of view, but I am not sure how the everyday Joe/Jane thinks about this and what he or she hopes to accomplish by this.

I was speaking to the daughter of somebody who was going to wait in the long line to pitch a wish. She said "Hey, it's a year of free groceries." Hmmm. So, this is why she was going? I didn't ask what her wish was. It got me to thinking. What would I wish for? Many thoughts crossed through my mind. Help for a little old lady. Help for a single mother trying hard to raise any number of children by herself. Help for a war veteran who has no legs or arms? I didn't even know where to begin.

After reading the Sunday paper and the wishes that people did pitch, I realize it was a little more personalized than what I was thinking. They had a special someone in mind and the show was looking for something unique, something to breathe inspiration back into the American people. I don't watch the show. I don't watch much television that is popular. I have never watched an entire episode of ER, Law and Order, Survivor, American Idol, Alias, or whatever forensic science show is popular nowadays. I'm not a prude. I watch t.v. now and again. I just like the documentaries. I watched a good one on Stonehenge the other night. I always thought the Druids built it, but this new one from "Naked Science" says "no." I fell asleep before it was over and my daughter had to fill me in.

Back to three wishes. I just don't care to get caught up in the hype. I have come to the conclusion if I wanted something for somebody I would work towards it. I wouldn't wish it. I don't play the lottery. Things like this aren't my cup of tea, so to speak. I don't know. Maybe I don't get it. Maybe this is why I am out of the loop a lot of times. Just like the song by Ani Difranco, wishin' and hopin' ain't gonna do it for me.

Of course, I wonder what the girl's mother was wishing for. I wish I would have asked her. (smiling to myself). I'll take it she didn't get her years supply of free groceries.

On another subject, I wish someone would explain to me why this couple feel the need to have so many kids! Because they CAN! I was talking to somebody at work about this. They said 'as long as we aren't paying for them.' I guess she meant welfare. But, I wonder. Can the father earn enough income to support sixteen children? (I am being a little bit daring here, and assuming that the Mother does not work outside the home. Forgive me. ) Or, do they qualify for funding from the government? When is too many children, too much? What about health care? If he is in public office, does the government pay the health insurance for this family?

I always received "wow" when I told people I come from a family of eight children. I have an Aunt (West Virginia) who had sixteen children, of which fourteen lived. But, she had them over such a time frame that the older ones were gone and married when the little ones were still coming along. My oldest brother was graduating high school when I came along.

This family had an eldest of seventeen as the latest was born. With sixteen total, that is a lot of legs running around the house in between. It is just way beyond my comprehension. The Mother could be one of those people that are perfect for multiple children. The patience, understanding and kindness that we so rarely see these days. It is probably a lot like running a daycare center. I wonder what the state law in Arkansas is for the ratio of children to adults.

Gotta love google - this state allows one adult per fifteen four-year olds, even though the experts recommend no more than eight to ten children per adult. That is in a daycare facility, not a home. So, if the father is away at work, and it is summertime (no school in session), I guess we can stretch it and say that seventeen-year old is close enough to an adult to count. Safe! And, we can stretch it farther and say that the two fifteen-year olds can pretty much look after themselves and help watch over the little ones. I have a fourteen-year old and I swear she needs looked after a heck of a lot more than she did at four and five. At four and five years old she didn't trek off with her friends. Stayed right in the yard, she did.

Now, what would really put the icing on the cake (for me, at least) is for me to find out that they are home-schooled. That would really top it off for me. If it's true, just don't tell me. My mind would blow, really it would.

Ding dong the witch is back

witch


My daughter and her best friend want to go bowling. Their boyfriends are working at a local haunted attraction. Here. The girls won't go to see it. I can't blame them. Not our cup of tea. We are waiting for my niece to start work at a local pizzeria so we can order pizza and have her deliver it. My girls aren't into football this year, either. The field is just over the hill from us, right next to the Park and the Teen center. Sometimes when we are outside we can hear the game noise drift over the nighttime sky. Same thing happens when the fair is going on. Except it is a couple of miles away.

I am hoping for a quiet week-end. The biggest obligation we have is getting our hair cut. I am going to try to get some fall yard work done. Really looking forward to that, I want to tell you. Wah-hah!

People in the area have done a nice job decorating for Halloween this year. If I get a chance, I want to walk around and take some pictures when it is just dark enough for them to show up nice. I like the orange and purple colors together. I didn't do much this year. No motivation.

Some people are doing their Christmas shopping and I can't even get into Halloween. I don't want to think about Christmas yet! They are spoiling it for me. I want to enjoy the fall weather while it is at it's peak.

Open Mouth

sunny lake


I was reading about my county on-line today and found out that it is an Indian word (well, I knew that) for "open mouth". Well, that explains a lot. I need to find out what Tappan means. That was fast. Gotta love google. It means "cold water".

I can't believe I forgot my dentist appointment this afternoon. I was just looking at my calendar on Tuesday (sans reading glasses) and I read "cloning 4:15" - NUTS! That is cleaning, YOU IDIOT! Get your glasses! And, along came today and I forget all about it. The very first time. They called and I get to go in before work tomorrow morning. My excuse is I called off sick Monday and I lost a day. Well, that' s my story and I'm sticking to it.

Harmony at work

harmony hill


Since there was a Harmony Valley, I figure there must be a Harmony Hill. This is the hill just before going into the valley. So, yonder is Harmony Valley. I didn't go anywhere today so no pics. It was an office day. Yawn.

One subject I like to do a lot of reading on is problem employees and how to manage people. I like to see what it is that I am doing to contribute to the office politic problem and how I can change my attitude and my behavior to correct it. Now, don't misunderstand. I am not having any problems. Things have been very smooth at work. I plan to keep it that way.

During my reading, I discovered the meaning of a word that pretty much describes my predicament at work. Autocratic. Mmmm Hmmmm. More trips to Harmony Valley are sorely needed.

Greener Grass

goats


I took a road off the beaten path. I came across Harmony Valley. We all know who wants harmony in the world, right? Yoko Ono? No, no. The Amish. Don't fret about the goats above. When I drove past, they ran back under the fence to safety. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Upside down and out of sorts

brew


THIS.IS.HOW.I.FEEL! Totally upside down and out of sorts. I am not myself. I didn't go to work today and I don't really know why. I went back to bed and slept most of the day away. I hate to sleep in the day. Mentally, I feel l.o.w. Below low. Smothered, sinking. I dreamt that I was writing down instructions, but I was writing through vegetable soup. That is what I had for lunch. Homemade vegetable soup. Not mine, but very good.

After forty, I realized that I would need reading glasses. As most of my siblings have come to discover. I am the youngest of eight and as I watch them age, I can figure I will have to follow suit on whatever they are battling.

Well, sometimes I get lazy and I don't get my reading glasses and I read the newspaper without them. Yesterday was such a day. There is a feature in our paper every month or so, I can't recall how often, called "The Amish Cook." One thing you can be certain with the Amish is they are always working, cooking and having children. This lady writes (kind of like our blogs) and tells of her life as an Amish woman. She always includes a recipe at the end of her column.

Today she was taking care of her youngest baby, about three weeks old. I picture her, the baby nursing, and she is cooking her other children their breakfast. Afterwards, she sits down to write her little piece for the paper.

She tells of helping her family out at a nearby farm. 'We must go and help sister Ella and her family butcher the children....." Err.... what was that? Back it up! Re-read that last line, there Peruby! 'We must go and help sister Ella and her family butcher the chickens...' Oh, good God! Go get your glasses! Reading on, '...still chopping up children....' REDO! REREAD! '...still chopping up chickens.....' Go already!

I have come to the conclusion that Amish life must really stink. (No pun intended!) They work entirely too hard for my comfort. And, I really must have running water.

The water is blue!

blue sparkle water


There. I touched up the photo and made the water blue.

Sparkles

sparkle water


The water on the lake last week was a murky brown, so I thought the picture would look better converted to greyscale. The sparkles are real. It was the kind you can stare at and get hypnotized.

The weather turned grey and cold. Headaches were moderate, but eye pain was intense. I tried allergy medicine, sinus medicine, plain ibuprofin, and even my migraine medicine. I was around cigarette smoke Saturday night, so the migraine medicine solved that problem. The eye pain just keeps coming back. Tried my Patanol eye drops. It made the pain go away for an hour or two, but as soon as the medicine wears off - boom.

Can't clean for two main reasons. Moving around too much creates pain and smells of the cleaning solution makes me sick. Can't cook because of smells. Can't watch movies or work on the computer because the light hurts my eyes. Of course, you can't read.

Weather is very wet and cold. Walking/exercise of any kind causes headache to increase.

Saturday I had plans, I baked lasagna and cupcakes for the gathering at my brother's house. So I take what medicine I can and ignore the pain. I was around my family and we laughed so hard. It really irritates me, because it made my head pound so bad. All I wanted was to be with my loved ones and laugh and have a good time! Grrrrr!

Sunday I just lay around quietly. I would get up and do some things but slowly and quietly. Small chores. Warm fuzzy blankets. Turned the furnace on when we came home last evening. Poor bird was shivering.

I resisted napping. If I sleep during the day it may affect my sleeping at night. Two of my sisters were telling me they also are having problems sleeping. We have "early morning insomnia" where we are tired and fall asleep pretty quickly when we go to bed, but wake up anywhere between two a.m. and five a.m. and cannot get back to sleep. For me, I usually fall asleep twenty minutes before the alarm is supposed to go off. I hate that! My Mom was an early riser. Always up between four a.m. and five. Rarely did she sleep past five-thirty.

Six of us got together yesterday to do more cleaning at my Mom's old house. I chose the date and was chided pretty good for it. You couldn't ask for much worse weather. Cold steel rain. We kept each others spirits up pretty good and laughed a LOT. We go in a group like this because by ourselves we get too melancholy and depressed. As a group we laugh at and with one another. We have so much to tell and talk about, sometimes very little work gets done. One brother found a huge rubber snake. I was spared his scare tactic, but he did get my other brother pretty good.

I am the youngest and just like the children's playground game 'Crack the whip' I am at the end of the line and get flung around pretty hard. This is the thought I woke up with this morning. It came to me during the half-asleep stage just upon awakening. For whatever it means.

Well, the eyes have about had it. I am way behind in my reading.

A Dandelion

dandelion


Trying to recall how warm and sunny it was on Wednesday. Because it sure ain't that now!

A moving house in the fog

fog house


Here is that moving house I was following the other morning in the fog. Well, it looks like a house. Actually, it was two sheds on the back of a flatbed truck. They were going slow, it was too foggy to pass and it made for great picture-taking opportunities.

I realized one of my pet peeves today. People on the right lane of an interstate who won't get over (when there is no other traffic in the left lane) for people entering from the on ramp. Why? Maybe they have this bet with somebody that they can drive the entire trip in the right hand lane. Well, this guy in a white van got over. He didn't want to, but he got over.

It must be something about white vans. Coming home I was in the left turning lane at a red light. We got a green arrow. The white van in front of me sat through the entire left-turn green arrow. I didn't blow my horn. I did throw my hands up in exasperation. Fridays! Sheesh!
white van

My Favorite Alien

blue alien


This was one of my favorite costumes I saw at the Fall Festival. Probably because it was blue.

We had a horrible homicide in our small little town this past month and it hit just a little too close to home for me. My daughter goes to the Teen Place and meets up with school friends. It is for teen-agers and as I have mentioned before that covers thirteen to nineteen year-olds.

One boy, my daughter knew only vaguely, was murdered in September. By four people. I use the term "people" loosely. It was a strange matter of events and the rumor mills are running at full blast. The four consisted of two eighteen-year-olds, one nineteen-year-old and one forty-something woman.

B. was murdered Sept. xx. His bound body was thrown in the river and wasn't recovered until Sept. xx. Four suspects have been arrested and are being held.

I think at this time, they have all confessed to their part in the crime (or at least the teen-agers have).

The affair itself is exacerbated by the macabre connotation of Halloween. Supposedly the teen-agers were working at a gruesome upcoming Halloween terror event in a nearby town. The kind that some teen-agers go to around this time of year to scare the bejesus out of themselves. With chainsaws, bloody bodies and frightening scenes.

You can't help but wonder if a "de-sensitizing" of the mind happens when one is repeatedly exposed to such a horrendous display in such a setting. It is my understanding that the victim died of multiple stab wounds with a crushing blow to the skull.

I also, have wondered if watching horror movies repeatedly can desensitize one to the violence. Not to mention violent video games. My daughter and I have battled a few times over such a game, along with her watching WWF.

I am one who cannot watch movies such as Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Dawn of the Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Chucky. I am completely "horrified" by the depiction. I only know of these movies by listening to others speak of them and their plots (or lack, thereof). I guess I don't need that shock value in my life.

I prefer other forms of movie entertainment. Comedy being my genre of choice. Speaking of, I am a little hesitant to see the upcoming remake of The Pink Panther. I am a big fan of the original(s).

The Foggy Lake

foggy lake


My was it foggy this morning. I drove East on 250 past Tappan Lake. There were some spectacular views. I was following a house on wheels. The fog made it look eerie. Later in the afternoon I was returning and stopped to take a few shots of the Lake in the glorious sunshine.

More Photos - follow the link on the sidebar.

Try free IrfanView

before irfanview


I stopped at lunch today at a park near my town. My town has a fabulous park and people come for miles around. But, today I saw the "other" park. Me thinks they are keeping it a secret. It was beautiful.

Still playing with "touching up" the pictures, I found a feature in a free program that I have used for years. It is called IrfanView.

Above is the picture before touching it up. And, below is the same picture after using the Contrast feature.

after irfanview


Of course you can click on the images to get a larger view of the differences. The best description I can come up with is a sort of "carmelizing" of the scene. IrfanView is just the best whenever I want to resize a picture quickly without jumping through a lot of menu choices. And, it creates screen savers. Rotating, negative, greyscale - it is just amazing for a free program. I highly recommend it.

Fall sunsets, foliage and goodies

suncalm


I followed Tabor's advice and touched my sunset photos up a bit using Paint Shop. A lot of them I turned a bluish purple. I may post them on my home page: www.mydeja-view.com. I did add the photos from the Fall festival I went to on Saturday. It was a glorious day.

purple sunset


I made pumpkin cookies today. The cookies came out great, but I wasn't impressed with the icing. It has been a while and I guess I used the wrong icing recipe. I used the drizzly one. And, why can't I make orange icing anymore? I noticed this a couple of years back. Maybe I need new food coloring. I can remember back in the late 70's, I made really orange icing for my cut-outs. I made little jack-o-lanterns. Note: this isn't the same food coloring.

At work a lady made a beautiful fall arrangment in the lobby of our building. I will get a picture sometime this week. The tree was awesome. I really can't afford one right now, but it was tempting. The store had sold out and just received more in. It has tiny white lights arranged throughout the opaque red/orange/yellow leaves. It is about four feet. I called the store. They have 4ft, 5ft, and 7ft.

Sunday Evening Calm

sunset sunday


It wasn't easy getting this without electric wires and light posts. Blah! This is from the grocery store parking lot I mentioned a few months back. I have been wanting to get pictures of the sunset there for ages. The timing was right. Although I have seen better sunsets here, this is the best for now. And, it is blurry because of the angle and zoom option I had to shoot with. If I could only climb on the roof tops of the business buildings.

Went to see The Wizard of Oz at the Players Guild. Wonderful. I have read the book. If you have read the book you know that it paints quite a different picture than the movie version. The jitterbug scene is included in the stage version. Also, if you have seen Return to Oz with Fairuza Balk, then you have seen how macabre things can be.

I have a theatre very close to me. I should get involved. Painting the backgrounds, something, anything. It does a body good to volunteer.

Fall Festival 2005

festival


Too. tired. to. write. much. The Atwood Fall Festival was just brilliant this year. Purrr-fect weather! A tad warm, but I'll take it. So much to see, so much to eat, not so many people. I don't know if they all wait until Sunday for the old car show. I found out a few years back the consequences of going on a Sunday. An hour sitting in traffic waiting to get in. No thanks.

There were a lot of people today, but not too crowded. So colorful. The Indian presentations were remarkable. Those people had to be so hot dressed up in their furs and feathers. To bed for me. Another busy day tomorrow.