Shake your booty

My brother and his lady friend. They were married for two years, divorced and got back together. She is 68, he is 51. They started dating in 1978. He was best friends with her oldest son. Her son was the one that had the surprise 50th birthday party. And was he surprised.

Nobody was dancing, so they thought they would get the party going. She ran out of breath. Smoking for 55 years or longer will do that to you. We left before the DJ played Wipeout. I didn't want to see that.

We saw some big beautiful flakes of snow today. It put me in the Christmas spirit. A little bit. Just a wee little bit. "Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes..."

Hey, lady!

My cat Jasper, is saying "Hey, lady! The washing machine (by law) must drain into a separate place than your sump pump! Don't you know nothin'? And, you better hope that the Munchkin's Mom doesn't see that picture of her drinking out of a sippy cup! She's trying to stop that, you know."

Oops.

Okay. Maybe he is just saying "Get that bleepin' camera flash out of my eyes!"

At least I can wash clothes.

It's spitting snow here. Maybe more than spitting. We travel today to a 50th birthday party. There will probably be lots of folks I have not seen in ages. My daughter wants to go to a specific car lot today and look at cars. Can we just drive around and look? I don't see any sign of the sun out there.

I have a toothache. A toothache! Where did THAT come from? It has been years. I know. I'll blame it on the new medicine.

I don't know if this is true of all headache sufferers, but I hate to take medicine when I don't have a headache. On the rare day that I don't, my back is hurting or (as in today) my tooth is hurting. I don't take the Advil. Why? I don't know. For some weird reason it just doesn't seem like pain if it isn't my head that is hurting. I can do things with a toothache and most things with a backache, or when the bottom of my foot hurts (plantar fasciitis), but when I have a headache it affects everything.

Movie Number 2

I've got the munchkin today. We have Simba and we are watching FernGully. It is our second movie. We have already watched Spirit. It is rainy and a bit chilly. Not sure we are going to make it to the park today.

I went downstairs to start a load of laundry and heard a troubling, humming sound. It was my sump pump. I did not smell any burning, but I think it is toast. I don't even know if I can wash clothes safely. I looked at the drain pipe from the washing machine. It looks to me as if it goes into the sump pump and then up and out. Darn. How about a trip to the laundromat today? And, I guess I better check the weather channel to see how much more rain I can expect.

If I get any more cats!

I'm gonna need one of these.

My oldest sister (1944) sent this photo to me. It is off the Internet. She is the only family member who has more cats than I do. I think. My daughter (who just a few years ago ooh'd and ahh'd over bringing home any little stray she saw) is ready to kill our cats. She stomps around the house stating "I hate cats! I'll never have cats!" We'll see.

I can see why I didn't post on Wednesday. I was gone from 7:30 in the morning to 8:30 at night. But, I don't have much of an excuse for yesterday. I barely touched my computer last evening.

This year I am putting the Thanksgiving dinner menu on line. ON LINE! This way everybody can see what everyone else is bringing. Now, if only they would let me know what they are bringing so I can update the menu. As for myself I am taking my usual cheese ball/tray. I want to make something new and different (don't I every year?) this year. But, we know how the new dishes usually turn out. Disaster! Stay to my tried and true favorites. Because you know family. Where is Peruby's ____? Or, why didn't you make your ____? Yep. Better to stick with tradition.

Long shadows

Driving home from a late meeting tonight I saw plenty of deer hit on the road. I saw plenty of deer standing by the road, and a few crossing. I was fortunate that I didn't hit any, or as most folks like to say these days "the deer hit me."

I even saw a car being pulled up onto a tow truck after hitting a deer. I think I'll stay off the roads after 6 p.m. until Spring.

My photos load (and display) much slower after I started uploading them in a png format. I think I'll go back to jpeg.

This is crazy!

Can you believe this! Marion Ohio at 7:30 p.m.

Gravel Road

One more photo from last week's drive over some back roads that still had some color on the trees.

The new first family must get a pet. Word is they will get a rescue mutt. One of the daughters are allergic, so that will narrow their choice. If I ever decide to purchase a dog (rather than rescue one) I would consider the papi-poo. So cute.

It would be tough though, because I found a stray in the 80's and from the research I've done, I determined she was a gray Dandie Dinmont Terrier. It would be hard to turn one of them down.

I would like to take a moment to thank the makers of anti-migraine medicine. Prior to lunch I was as sick as a dog. I thought I would have to go home and go to bed. I took my medicine (currently am using Imitrex, but all have worked for the most part) and some ibuprofen. After a couple of hours (slowly sometimes) I was feeling a heck of a lot better. This evening I am free from pain and can do normal things. It is great to have my life back and not live like some drunk on the couch where sounds and lights irritate me, with a cold washcloth on my forehead or over my eyes, and a bucket by my head.

Quiet

It's quiet here. Sunday morning peaceful. No paper. We seem to have a new carrier for paper and post. Both come later than they used to. Sigh.

I was a paper carrier in my youth. First thing after school. I delivered about 50 papers around town. Collecting was always dreadful. Took most of the Saturday. I didn't deliver the Sunday paper back then. I'm not sure I even remember why.

I am fixing turkey and the trimmings today. Not a whole turkey. Oh no. Just the breast. It is delicious, it is quicker, it is easier, there is no mess. Everybody is happy.

I've slacked off the reading. I finished "Our Iceberg Is Melting". I have not moved on to any others except for the Web Designing one I have been using at work. I've had a houseful this week-end but they are all sleeping, now. I am treasuring it because I know that one day and it won't be long before I am puttering around this little house all alone. I chose a small house because I knew that it would be just me someday. I'll try not to turn into the cat lady. LOL!

The calendar is filling up for the holidays. A party here, a dinner there, shopping in between. Meet us here and meet them there. Then there are the appointments. We look at starting another round of mole removals soon. We took a break for about a year. My daughter has noticed three that have changed and we see her dermatologist this Wednesday. Never fun.

The side of the barn

The sun's rays can hit the side of a barn.

What would you do?

My scheduled appointment was 9:00 a.m. I was way early. It was a beautiful sunny morning. I filled the gas tank ($2.04 per gallon), cleaned all the car windows and my camera was in the front seat with 2 fully charged batteries. What would you do? Yep. That's what I thought. Backroad central here I come!

My daughter and I have determined that a new medication I started Tuesday is causing a bit of mental hyperactivity. My posts (such as yesterdays) may come across a bit weird until I adjust to the pills. Goofy talk.

Giggling, grinning, girls

I wonder how they will remember this event. If they will remember it. I have memories from when I was four and there are images that I can recall but I don't know from where or when. It was as if somebody had taken me somewhere and the room or the building was etched into my memory but I was far too young to recall where I was and what the event was. Perhaps some of the images of the wedding will etch themselves in the minds of these young girls. A color, an image. Hopefully they will be good memories.

Weddings are beautiful things. I have attended many of them. None of them mine. I recall thinking about marriage but if I am honest with myself, I realize I never really wanted that lifestyle for me. I have had four sisters and two brothers marry. Three ended in divorce and three are hanging in there. None of them are pretty. I wouldn't want to be in any of the relationships that I see. I can't name one. Inside or outside the family.

I hope things smooth out before the girls get to the dating age. I am just having a devil of a time with my daughter and her dating woes. I try not to be negative, but she sees what I am exposed to. My sisters complaining about their marriages. Constantly.

A few years ago she was all for getting married. Now she wants nothing to do with it. Hey, it isn't for everybody. Maybe we are selfish, maybe we are controlling. I don't have any married friends. Divorced or NBM's like me (never been married).

I hear people speak of "I don't want to grow old alone" or "I don't like to be alone." Not much of a problem for me. I suppose I'll have a sister in one form or another living with me someday. We are a close (and large) family and there is always somebody needing a place to stay.

Back to memories, though. I had one memory that just haunted me for years. I finally got to the root of it. Back in the late 60's my older brother took me and another brother to see "2001: A Space Odyssey" at an old theater. It had these beautiful lit lanterns on the wall in red and blue. I was probably 8 since that is the year the movie came out (1968). And I remember pieces of that movie. Now really. You've seen the movie. Can an 8 year old grasp the concept of it? It just left me thinking "What is this about?" And it probably scared the bejesus out of me at the time.

One day (years later) I was watching the movie and I said "I've seen this movie!" And my brother said "Well, yeah. I took you to see it..." Oh. It left me feeling very strange until I unravelled the mystery. Come to think of it I still ask myself "What is this about?" when I watch the movie. LOL! "Daisy, daisy...give me your answer do."

Ah. I believe my mind is going. I can feel it. Dave! My mind is going.

Fun in the leaves

Live it up!

Museum foyer

There was a richness to the woodwork that doesn't seem to be as beautiful in the photo as it was in real life. You could tell that the gentleman who gave us the tour was very proud of this house and all of it's artifacts.

I voted days ago and I am SO glad.

My daughter has been stopping in at my office every afternoon after school to attend her driver's training classes in the evening. She is getting first-hand exposure to my co-worker and her odd behavior.

Lips

If you have experienced seeing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, you will understand the above photo.

Now, about RHPS. People actually do this? I thought trekkies were bad. Watching the movie at home is one thing. Going to a production as to where they show the movie in a theater and quite a few members of the audience dress up as one of the characters in the movie was another thing.

You can get a prop bag and sort of participate with the show. For example, when the character says the phrase "Great Scott!" the audience throws their toilet paper into the air from their prop bag. There are also water pistols involved. I prayed that nobody filled their pistol up in the bathroom with any liquid other than water. You get a newspaper to put on top of your head.

It may have been better if I had actually seen the movie before I went to the show because for most of the time you cannot hear the actors. It is very raunchy. Not at all tasteful. It is gross, quite sexually suggestive and sadly sets one's mind to wondering if people actually do behave in such a perverted and obtuse manner. And if they do, I am so glad I don't know them or about them.

It was an experience and I will leave it at that. It certainly isn't for everybody. I knew the gist of the event and I was prepared for some raunchiness. It was absolutely bizarre.

At the beginning of the show the emcee asked for the youngest members of the audience along with the oldest. There were two young teens. One was eleven, the other thirteen. I felt sorry for them. At that age I may have been horrified by the movie.

In following the cult-like fashion of this showing, I am not longer a virgin so to speak. This is somebody who has never seen the movie. Well, it was on target in that respect. As some women do after their first sexual encounter, I was asking myself, "Is that it?" And you come away feeling disappointed and wondering what all the hoopla is about. There certainly were a lot of folks enjoying themselves. Perhaps as in the act itself, it takes time to get really good at it. I'll pass on seeing if that experience works for the show, thank-you very much.

Cotton boat

I love the way they used gray colored cotton for the smoke and colored some blue for the water on this model of a boat at the museum. They even left the cotton behind the boat white to make it appear as churned up water. I have no idea if the red and green Christmas lights actually worked.

Reflection

Here is a time piece of a bridal/wedding arrangement from the historical museum. A wedding dress (not this one) was on display that was supposedly sewn by Dean Martin's aunt. This town is the birthplace of Dean-o.

Presidential candidate McCain was very close to my house today. He spoke at the local High School's ball field. The Principal made it clear that the school was not endorsing either candidate and it was not mandatory for students to attend the event.

I am on my way to the theater tonight "Rocky Horror Picture Show." Ooohh. So Halloweenish? Cripes. I haven't even seen the movie. How lame is that? I will be getting me a prop bag, though. Hey, I'm cool. I "googled" the event. No surprises for me. Well, maybe no surprises. I'll let ya know.

Crisp air

I added some enhancement to this photo to make the colors pop a little bit more. It was a bit dreary the day I took this picture. I enjoy the fall. I am very fortunate that I don't have any allergies (that I am aware of) that inhibit me from going outside and taking in all of the leaves turning colors.

My post yesterday was a bit dramatic. We are not eating cereal and eggs. I made a huge pot of chili and I find it quite good. My daughter is not one to eat soups. Except for tomato soup with a toasted cheese sandwich. One of our favorites.

But, the part about my co-worker was not fabricated. In fact I toned it down. There is so much more. It is comforting to know that I am not the only one to put up with it.

I am currently reading a plethora of books. One in particular "Our Iceberg Is Melting" is interesting. It is about change and dealing with it.

Run and hide

Here is the park from the other evening when I took pictures. Today was a "run and hide" day. It certainly was not my day. Good grief.

My co-worker began her usual banter. I didn't want to deal with her diarrhea of the mouth, so I reached in my desk drawer to pull out my (personal) head phones. Except they weren't there. I think the last time I saw them was a little over two weeks ago. I looked everywhere. I racked my brain trying to remember if I had taken them somewhere. There would be no need to take them home as I have another set there.

I hate the dinky ear buds that come with today's equipment and work only gets you crappy stuff, so I brought my own in. Our office door has not locked in years (brand new building, crappy construction). I don't dare complain because the company that I work for does not pay this office rent for me and my co-worker. We are there only by their good graces. A few years back a certain manager at that office threw that fact up in my face and I'll never forget that sweet lady. Heh. Well, they are going to get the door fixed, now. Always after the horse is stolen, lock the barn door. I don't think it bothers me so much that I lost a nice set of headphones as the fact that we have somebody in the building who is a thief.

That wasn't the worst part. I have a folder on my hard drive where I keep all my "stuff". I could not access it this morning. It was corrupted. I never cared much for System RESTORE, but it saved my butt today. I restored my system back to yesterday at 9:00 a.m. It zapped my anti-virus, but I was happy to have my folder back.

Our office has never purchased us any anti-virus software. Doesn't that just figure? I downloaded the free AVG. My computer is so-o-o slow, now. You get what you pay for.

I had an old copy of Norton AV Corporate edition from years ago. It was such a hassle to install it, I just wasn't up to it today. That's why I went with Grisoft's version.

My system still may not be right. I guess time will tell.

My co-worker sits over there and grins from ear to ear all hopped up on her pain medication and now the doctor has given her stimulants to keep her from falling asleep at her desk (and hopefully at the wheel of her car). Now, she jumps around like a Mexican jumping bean and it has loosened her tongue up even more (as if she wasn't chatty enough!) I just want to deck her a good one and wipe that smile off her smug face.

I kid you not. ALL day today she played McDonald's monopoly game on-line. There you go. It is no wonder government employees get such a lazy, no good reputation. I can't stand her.

When she sees me rubbing my eyes or flinching she asks "Migraine?" or, "Are you in pain?" If I dare say "Yes" she jumps in with "You're lucky you don't have MY pain!" That is enough to start her torrent of "woe is me" stories and "poor, poor pitiful me" tales. This is the reason I wanted to sit and listen to my CD and block her out. It is the only way I can deal with her without wanting to strangle her.

My dog has fleas! FLEAS!!! The $100 I was going to spend in groceries just went to flea medicine for the damn pets. Five cats and one dog. It's eggs and cereal for the rest of the week, daughter dear.

Yeah. I'm going to bed now. Don't we have a beautiful park?

Light in the museum

I was fascinated with the staircase of the museum. Except it was cold in there. No money to heat it and there are not many visitors. But the best part was the train in the basement.

Kool-aid mouth

Actually it was red punch. This little girl stole the show at the six year old boy's birthday party. He did not care. He was constantly running with the older kids. Bursting balloons (much to my dismay). This time my daughter had the headache. I had been battling a headache and had taken migraine medicine earlier.

Most of the time it looks as if some folks are sissies and are "scared" of balloons. In my case, I am scared of the headache I am going to get from the sudden "bang" of the balloon popping. This is why I hate loud noises. And they had a lot of balloons to pop. Most of the games were centered around the balloons. It was an afternoon nightmare.

My daughter's headache went away on the drive home.

We went to a gadget show at our local library. We did not win the drawing for the Wii. Drat. I did learn about the Kindle and Sony's version. Of course, now I want one. I also saw an iPod speaker that I wouldn't mind having. There was one GPS. There were the usual gaming stations and Verizon had a cell phone display. I was not interested in any of those. Overall, it was rather paltry. I heard others say the same thing. We are hoping it will grow into something more substantial next year. I may call some local vendors and mention to them that they missed a golden opportunity to show some of their stuff. It could be that the larger ones are not able to display their products in such a fashion.

Sony

Kindle

The salesman with the iPod speaker talked me into participating in Black Friday. almost. I despise crowds and I despise shopping. I also don't like to get up and get moving at that early of an hour. Although with my recent early morning insomnia, this may not be an issue. Another reason I don't participate is because I am too darn tired.

I usually go all out for the dinner on Thanksgiving. If I am not fixing stuff, I am helping a family member prepare. It still (and always will) infuriate me that the women still fix and clean up the mess while the men sit around watching football and sleeping off the heavy meal. Why my sisters let them get away with it is beyond me. What am I saying? I do the same for my nephew when he comes to visit. He does not help to clean up. (kicking myself). But, is he family or a guest? So, I am guilty. I have only myself to blame for this pet peeve.

I went with a small group to tour a Historical Museum on Friday. The house (museum) was just beautiful. I took pictures. It was sad to read some of the letters from soldiers to their families.

We watched Made of Honor (blah) and What Happens in Vegas. Vegas had some funny parts. Somebody please give Kutcher a decent hair style. His droopy hair was driving me crazy. Co-stars Hater and Tipper almost stole the show right out from under the stars. Lake and Rob were a comedic delight.

Hyper drive

It looks as if this soybean field is diseased with stem rot or stem canker of a sort. I am not sure. It makes for a colorful photo, though. I am still having the early morning insomnia.

I ended up being in a state of hyper activity yesterday, probably due to sleep deprivation. It wasn't the coffee I purchased because that was basically undrinkable. By the time I arrived at the meeting I was in supersonic "ON". I was practically beaming. I tend to be funny (quite possibly annoying) when I am in this state. I tried to "check" myself many times. I would say to myself 'calm down' or 'relax' a few times.

After the meeting I went on to another job in a neighboring county. That went okay. I ate a quick lunch, then home to take a 20 minute nap.

At the dinner I was in super sonic mode again. I bounced around an overheated cafeteria chatting with small children who were complete strangers to me. That is what I do. I move around quickly so I don't come across as a freaky stalker. By the time it came for me to sell raffle tickets my hyper drive was in full force. This may have been in part to the cream stick I ate after my late lunch. Hmmm.

I kept the never ending line of folks in stitches. Again, maybe I was annoying. I didn't need to worry about the dinner falling flat. It was so successful they sold out of dinner tickets and had to start using them over again. It went all too fast and at the end I was left with a feeling of complete and utter melancholy. I walked the halls of the high school (no longer my daughter's school) lost in a wave of sadness, watching the students pump up for the pep rally. The band was in full swing as they marched through the halls to the cadence of their snare drum player (memories of when I was in the high school band).

All of a sudden I was in 1975 with my clarinet feeding off of the roar of the crowd. My daughter is not a part of this. She never was. She shuns school and her fellow students.

I watched five minutes of the rally and sadly walked to my car. I remember selling raffle tickets for a millennium quilt when she was in third grade. I had parked in the exact same spot. Nine years have come and gone. The crash had begun.

The reception

Here is the backdrop of where the wedding party sat at the event earlier this month. It was a beautiful get together with family and watching two wonderful people get together after 6 years of dating.

I woke up at 3 this morning. It is going to be a long day. I have to drive to another county for a technical meeting and after work I am helping out with my daughter's class spaghetti dinner. I get to sell raffle tickets. I probably won't be home until nine p.m.

What do you do to keep you going all day on a marathon day? I am feeling groggy now, but this is the normal time I get up so I need to go and hit the shower. Cold to wake me up, I guess. I drink coffee but I can go to sleep right after a cup, so that doesn't do much good.

I'll take my camera and drive with the window down to get the fresh cool air on my face. Staying awake during the boring parts of the meeting is the hardest part. At another meeting two days ago I had taken migraine medicine and was rubbing my forehead and I swear I fell asleep doing that.

No riding with anyone because I have a job right after at a school close by the meeting place, so I have to go off on my own. I doubt that I will get to lunch with the group, but I just did that on Tuesday so I am okay with that.

Most of the fall colors are faded, but maybe I'll find a jewel out there today. Headache is starting so I am off to drink some cool water and shower.

Backroads

I think that is one of my favorite places to be. Driving on a back country road in Ohio taking pictures of the beautiful scenery. I love it!

Senior pictures are taken. The weather was superb. A little breezy and my daughter's eyes get dried out, but the sunshine was fantastic. He took a lot outside. I get to view them Saturday. I have to squeeze it in. I have something at 11:00, view pics at 12:15, (back to the earlier event) then a birthday party at 4:00.

Photographer spoke a lot about the election. (Is there anything else?) He said the perfect candidate should be a gay, black woman. Then he said something about Condoleezza Rice, but I didn't catch it.

Valley View

My daughter is getting her Senior portraits/pictures taken today. Gah! Weather forecast: High of 53, abundant sunshine. We will be outside for half of the photos. Double Gah! I think I will stay in the car. Partly to stay warm and partly to refrain from making any comments which will certainly elicit a negative look, comment and mood from my teenage daughter. Triple Gah!

Numbers

Driving the other day I couldn't resist the numbers depicted in this license plate. 79 for the county, and the birth date of 7-09 started it out. Then I saw the number 9. I also saw the 3 + 4 = 7. If you add the remaining 2, you get NINE! Wow! When I showed my daughter she said, "Well D is the 4th letter of the alphabet..." That got me thinking. If D is the 4th, N is the 14th and P is the 16th. Add them all together you get 34, right? So what? Until you add 3 + 4 and get SEVEN!

No sunshine

Returning from a school in another county on Friday I tried to capture some of the foliage, but the sun did not shine that day. At least not while I was on the road. It is a little disconcerting for me to look to find that I have not posted in four days. I like to read back over the years to see what I was doing last October or last Easter. Things like that. When I don't post, I tend to omit things that may bring back a quirky memory for me years from now. Oh, well. Life gets in the way.

Where to next?

Just so you know. I did NOT choose the socks.

Geese

Across the lake is Canada... no, it isn't. It is still Ohio. There are just Canadian geese over there. Lots and lots of them. This was just one snapshot of the far side of the lake.

In the late 80's my brother and I rented a huge farm house in the middle of nowhere. There were two house on a long dirt lane. Our neighbor had geese. The big white ones. I was not and am not fond of geese. Mean critters. They attacked my car. They tried to attack me but I was having none of that. Purses come in handy. They were gone before my daughter arrived.

That story sounds like my brother and I were from a family of inbreds. No. His girlfriend was living with us and on any given week-end his kids were there from his previous marriage and her kid lived with us. When I had my daughter I moved out after 4 years. I had finally landed a decent job and matured enough to support she and I and create a home for the two of us.

Swimmingly

Yesterday was a beautiful day for duck feeding and playing in the park. Our park has a great new play area in the shape of a train. Wow! It was fantastic. Today was just as nice. No playing, though. Mowing.

Sunglasses

I am getting a visitor today. Without my sister and niece. Just the wee one. And me. Well, my daughter will be here but "she hates kids". Uh, no she doesn't. You should see her with the little ones. They run to her.

Anyway, we may go to the park. It will be a nice reprieve playing with this one while my calendar is full of scheduling senior pictures, college visits, SAT tests and the like. Oh, the time. The time does fly.

When folks say that, I laugh and say "It's been the longest (insert age of daughter here) years of my life!" Now it is all coming crashing in around me. I am trying to apply the brakes. Can you smell the burnt rubber? My heels are digging in. I am leaning way back. I won't give in without a fight, I tell you.

Oh, I finished the book by William Shatner. Very funny, very good read. I have moved on to a political one. The name escapes me. Google found it, "The Great Derangement" by Matt Taibbi. Not sure if I am going to stick with this one. So far, so good. If the book is anything like the introduction, I'll like it.

Up to my ears in it

Today I read and provided some documentation on how to resolve DNS problems. Yeah, I had a headache. But it wasn't just from the dreary DOS CLI. From 8:00 to 10:00 I listened to my co-worker yak, yak, yak about her re-modeling her kitchen. More about the recipes she was reading out of a magazine. More on her new "date" last night.

"I got a kiss last night!" We are 48 and 44, not 18 and 14.

At around 10:00 she leaned around her desk to look at me. I position my monitor so she can't see me, or better so I cannot see her. "Did you know that broccoli has..."

That was it, I blew my gasket. "I'm trying to work here!"

"Oh!" and she hung her head. I heard some sniffling. But I got peace and quiet. For about an hour anyway. Good grief.

Ladder in the street

"Well, Doc. It seemed like a real good idea at the time."

I can see this photographer telling the emergency room doctor how he got hit by a car while standing on a ladder in the middle of a one way street in downtown. The nut.

I am still playing catch up. Washing clothes, fixing dinner, cleaning the kitchen. I got hit with a classic migraine at noon today. I got the visual auras. I have not had those in years! Maybe more than a decade if not twenty years. I've not started any new medicine. Out of the blue.

I immediately took my medicine (for migraine) and ran to McD's to get some salty french fries. I went home, put the sleep mask over my eyes and listened to the television while holding my cat. I took the rest of the afternoon off. I figured it wouldn't be long before I was feeling well enough to get up and do chores. It was over four hours before I felt like doing anything worthwhile.

By six p.m. I was washing clothes, cooking dinner, washing pots and pans, getting the garbage out and I am still going with laundry. My daughter and I both had a mountain to wash.

Last week I finished the book "The Mapmaker's Wife." It was very boring at first. It appears as if the author did his research very well and went on an on about how in the 1600's and 1700's they were measuring the earth's circumference, etc.. barely anything about the woman that represented the book title. Then it seems to have wrapped the story up quickly, like he ran out of time or something. Or, maybe because he started to write about her miraculous trip down the Amazon I was more interested and it seemed to go faster.

I can't even tell you how horrifying her trip must have been. She started out being carried like a princess and ended up wondering around by herself in the Amazon territory infested by army ants, and bugs that dug down into her skin and scalp (may be chigoe fleas), bats that actually crept up at night and sucked their blood (so says the author), and billions of merciless blood-sucking mosquitoes, jaguars, who knows what kind of fish and of course the dreaded anaconda. (Shutter).

I am relieved to say that the next book I am currently reading is funny and has me laughing until I cry. It is William Shatner's "Up Till Now." He may have been arrogant and hard to work with but this book is great.

The cake

I'm playing catch up. I've been trying to get my photos posted so the family can see them. The Happy Couple better not be waiting for them. I'm thinkin' they have better things to do here.

Not this year

Sigh. I am skipping so many things this year. Skipped a vacation over the summer. Skipped the county fair. Now I am skipping the October Fall Festival. Oh well. I have a big family wedding this week-end out of town. We could go to the festival tomorrow afternoon/evening but my daughter has put off shopping for new shoes every day this week. I am trying to get her butt in gear this evening, but no. I need to mow the grass and we need to go shopping. I have my clothes, but I always like to look and see if there is anything nicer out there, you know?

Anyway, I suppose that will leave us tomorrow evening running around trying to find her a comfortable pair of dress shoes. And my daughter wants to go and see a movie tomorrow night. I usually don't buy anything but a welcome sign for my door. Maybe some candles. It is the food and atmosphere that I enjoy. They have Indian dances and a colonial display of tents and outdoor fires. It is a colorful and aromatic adventure for the soul. One year I purchased a flute CD of Indian music, another year Celtic music with a hammer dulcimer.

Did we miss the parade?

What if they sleep through it? I guess you have to get your spot early if you want to see the parade. There was an old classic car show to see, too.

Too much

Somebody really has to like their job or their store to decorate every square inch. It was a sight, I want to tell you, but it was so overwhelming. You really would have to spend hours looking at the stuff or you would miss most of it. It is mental overload.

I am the type of person that is just awed by the colors and shapes here that I don't see the item unless it is huge and staring me right in the face. So, I miss the small stuff. The purple flower I would remember, but if they would have asked if I saw the shiny money-shaped twig at the bottom of the photo, I'd be like "huh?" Or, the little bear hanging from the black rod, or the blue monarch butterflies, I missed them all.

I don't know if this type of sales layout works or not. It gives me a headache. But, what doesn't?

Plum Cat

Isn't she/he pretty? I could not resist taking a picture of this beautiful cat posing in a store at the Swiss Festival. It ended up being a beautiful day weather-wise although it was a bit close and muggy. I did get a migraine right in the middle of this store and I took medicine. I had to lay low and walk and talk easy for a couple of hours, but for the most part the headache did not progress after that. Whew.

There was an elderly gentleman that kept trying to get my daughter to dance with him. I YouTubed him. If you want to see him you can go to www.youtube.com and perform a search on "happy feet Swiss festival" and it should bring up 2 videos. He was good but my daughter did not care for our teasing her about him. LOL!

His steps at the end of the first video reminds me of clogging and river dancing. My Mom said my dad was a good clog dancer back in the day.

We ate at our favorite restaurant, Der Dutchman. I only ate my mashed potatoes (craving salt during a migraine) and took the rest home. Roast turkey, dressing and green beans. It made for a great supper later in the evening when I was feeling better.

Once the rain began, my headache dispersed. It took it a while.

I purchased 6 mums that I hope to get in my front yard today or at least this week. It is cloudy and rainy out today.

I tried to talk politics a couple of times yesterday with my friends. They didn't seem to want to, so I dropped the subject. They did want to talk economy, though.

My friends and daughter had a good time laughing at me. I am the type of person that talks to strangers. Anything can spark my conversation. I usually zero in on ones with children. I read the parents' response and reaction. If their face reads "back off" I back off. If they smile and reply to what I say, then I chat a while. A lot of folks brought their pooches to the festival also. I told my daughter we will take Sable the next time we go. The dogs made for great conversation starters.

We caught the tail end of some Alpine horn players. I think they would have performed again, but there was a loud polka band (Mr. Happy Feet) just a couple of blocks away and the horns would not have been heard. Sigh. I so wanted to get a video of them playing. YouTube has plenty of samples.

When we went to the popular Amish market to purchase meats, dry goods and baked goods it was swamped. The bakery was wiped out. It was elbow to elbow tourists mixing in with the regular Saturday Amish shoppers. Forget trying to navigate a buggy. This is where I purchased my mums for $3.79 each. Great big huge, blooming ones and some with lots of buds. In my area they are $4.69 each.

My daughter had wanted a pumpkin roll. They didn't even have frozen ones. So, I got out my last can of canned pumpkin and made pumpkin bars of my own. I found a recipe that looked interesting and they are cooling now, waiting to be iced. I also made the cream cheese icing. I hope they turn out good. Or, at least edible.

Edit: No worries about the pumpkin bars being edible. You just need a big glass of cold milk or a cup of hot coffee to go with.

Cloud cover

I don't know where this photo was taken. It was on the camera's memory card when I took pictures of my basement. I like the sky and cloud cover. I did enhance the photo a bit to bring out a prettier shade of blue in the sky. If you look closely you can see my smeared windshield.

And while every other house on my street had one dinky little garbage can set outside for the trash pickup, my front yard looked like this! Oh, Mea culpa!

Hair

Years ago, before my daughter got her hair cut, I took one of her pictures and blew it up on the scanner and printed it. I taped it to a window and traced it. The features I added were much older than her 12 years. I thought, let's see if this is what she looks like when she gets older. I didn't anticipate the hair cut and coloring. Oh, well. It doesn't really look like her at all.

I finished the John Denver autobiography. This one he wrote, I believe in 1994. I didn't like it. I finished the book not liking the guy at all. I am now reading a biography of The Eagles: The Untold Story.

I can almost understand their drug taking and drinking. The party never ends until they burn out. What I cannot understand is "groupies." Where do these people come from? How in the hell are they raised so that they worship a rocker? I think somebody should write a book on groupies. Women who have followed bands around and lived to tell about it. What were they thinking at the time? Where are they now and how are they living their lives? Did they marry and have children? Or, did they all die of a sexually transmitted disease? What values do they carry with them today? Will they let their daughters run out and follow bands around the country sleeping with any band member?

Oh, I don't get it. Oh, okay. There have been books written. Maybe I'll see if my library group has the book(s). I'm not sure I would even want to read it, but curiosity gets the better of me.

Never missed a meal

They came. Five of them. Big strong sturdy men to work in my basement. One of the first remarks as one of the fellows looked at my dog. "Looks like she never missed a meal!" What? Did you just insult my dog? I said "What? She's our baby and we love her very much!" Humph! She is just built stocky! Sable didn't mind. She loved the guys.

They anchored my basement wall with steel supports and put a new drain system in that empties into my sump pump. Now comes the fun part. Washing the walls down with Clorox and water mix, and painting with waterproof paint. I think if I can choose, I'll choose a deep rust or orange color. Why paint them boring white or yellow?

Now, I have a root/fruit/wine cellar again. Should I dabble in wine? Why not? I'll get a small wine rack and put in there. Although I am not sure how cold it gets. Hmmm. I don't think it freezes in there. It is below ground, so I don't suppose it can. It does have a window. That may not be good for the wine.

Kiss this week good-bye

Here is my little grand niece blowing kisses. Or doing something. I am not exactly sure I recall what she was doing when I took this photo. She was laying on the floor, that much I remember.

I have to mention again what respect I have for the folks who go through a hurricane or tornado with stronger winds than what I saw Sunday night. I hope to never have to witness or endure anything like that ever again.

I have to clean up my basement closet for the workers to start installing support bars for my basement's west wall. I procrastinated and now it is like I have Saturday and Sunday. I also have to clean out the root cellar. My niece made it her own personal trash room. I didn't realize this until after she left. It is where the water came in and I never cared to open the door. I am sure there is mold. If I get the time or the inclination, I'll take pictures. Woot!

It was a pretty crazy work week. I finished it today with my head wrapped around the Mandriva flavor of Linux. I have something screwed up and I can't get httpd to start. I tried Ubuntu, didn't like it. I like for this to be difficult and have snags, because then I learn more. If everything worked the way it was supposed to, I'd be sitting there looking around saying "That was easy." And, I wouldn't know what started what and how things worked underneath the desktop. That's probably why I don't like the Mac. Boring.

Which reminds me. You should see me using my iPod. I try to do "windows-related" things when I am syncing it up to my computer and I think I am making it worse. LOL! Oh, well. My music is getting moved over though and I am having a wonderful time with it.

Half car...

During the storm, I snapped a photo west of my front yard. One neighbor drives a small truck and one drives a large car. Put them together and this is what you would have. If the front end of the truck were a wee bit higher.

I went to the park today. I need to take my camera over there soon. The trees that came down there were pretty big. Two huge trees were completely uprooted. As I said, Ohio has not experienced this strength of a wind storm in such a long time, this one just sort of took out the weakest links, I guess.

Many are still without power. Schools are opening their gymnasiums up in the mornings for folks to come and shower. That is a blessing in itself. There is free water somewhere else for folks to come and help themselves. I hope that only those in need take the water and nobody greedy goes to get it.

I had my head stuck in a Catalyst 4006 all day today. I had to replace the supervisor module. That was the easy part. Re-configuring the switch took up most of the time. The part arrived at 11:45 a.m. It was shipped out from Texas yesterday afternoon. I find that remarkable.

"The Mothman Prophecies" is getting ridiculous. Talking about folks being abducted by aliens or some taking spaceship rides to other planets. I am breezing through it just to finish the crazy thing. I am hoping that the author writes the last paragraph "This was all a joke, I really don't believe this stuff."

The author is getting more and more absurd as the book goes on. He is now speaking of aliens predicting events in 1967 (R. Kennedy shooting and attempted assassination of the Pope and MLK murder). Things of this nature. Little red lights, spaceships hovering in the air. It will end with the collapse of the silver bridge and how people knew something "bad" was going to happen because of all the sightings in the area. How they made a movie out of this is beyond me.

Breezy

A neighbor's house on Sunday

If Sunday's wind storm was any indication of even half of what the folks that go through a hurricane deal with, then I want no part of it. I guess it is half. Our winds gusted to 70 mph or more. That is a "weak" category 1. A measly 1 and tree limbs fell all over the state. Trees snapped in half and were uprooted. Maybe it is because we don't get that kind of wind that often, I don't know.

It was intense. We were without power for 18 hours. Some folks are still out. My brother got word that his power may be back on Sunday. That is an entire week without electricity. He has a generator. He is cooking on the gas grill. Folks are tossing out food left and right.

Schools were closed yesterday. Some were still closed today. My office is dark. I had to use a flashlight to go and pick up my work cell phone and laptop. I told the two schools I went to today, even though YOU have electricity - the fiber connection (Time Warner) has lines down all over the state. 260 plus lines down. Some do not have their Internet. Not very happy campers.

Funny how different folks deal differently with situations. One guy was angry and spoke to me in a very annoying manner. The afternoon school personnel was friendly, joking and laughing. They understood that certain aspects of the job are out of my hands and left it at that.

A massive migraine hit me at 4 a.m. Monday morning. Not sure if it was the cold front moving in, or an after effect of the storm stress. Running around, catching flying lawn chairs, making sure I don't catch the house on fire with the dozen of candles I lit, hoping the huge pine tree doesn't fall on my house and hoping my house stays put. The monkey is still with me today, but not nearly as bad as Monday. I lost most of Monday to the pain. I was supposed to be outside picking up tree branches out of my yard. I managed to get out there Monday evening when it was much cooler outside and pile them in a huge pile where my garbage men pick up the trash.

It gets really frustrating. There are so many things I want to do. Although I must admit, life is much better than before the medication.

I am still muddling through "The Mothman Prophecies" which is NOTHING like the movie. It is about some guy who researches UFO activity and all things associated with it. The history. He states that the witches of Salem and vampires were probably these 'mothman' sightings that were seen in late 1967 in WV. Wings, capes, flying. Mothman, vampires, witches. Mmm hmmm.

Lost (almost) Children

There were 8 children in my family. Here are 4 of them.

1. 1942
2. 1944
3. 1949
4. 1953
5. 1954
6. 1956
7. 1957
8. 1960

I am number 8. Above are 2, 3, 4 and 5.

I went to a workshop yesterday. It was with Sister 1944. It was in the county where I had grown up. She had spent a lot of her life growing up in that county also. It was a Genealogy workshop. There was a speaker who had written a book about a Children's home from this county. Lost Children. Sister 1944 said that we were almost placed in this home. She didn't specify what year, and I plan to get back to working with her on this project and asking her questions about this fact.

At the time this photo was taken, I was not born yet. Sister 1956 was in the photo, but she was in the lap of a neighbor, so I cropped it out.

The book is about finding the children who lived in this home and how their life was and is as a result of it. I have the book but have not read it yet. The speaker had asked one lady if he could put her story in his book. She declined. She passed away this Spring and he was now able to tell her story to the group.

Her father had died and her Mother was unable to care for her. She was placed in this home. The Mother said she would come back for her. Years went by. The girl wrote to her Mother, pleading with her to write back to her. The girl received nothing. The Mother died and the girl would visit her grave and crying in anger, curse her Mother. She would cry "I loved you! Didn't you love me?"

Years passed. A decade or so ago, this girl went to look at her records. The director of the home handed over her files. There were piles of letters from her Mother, unopened. She broke down and cried. Her Mother had written to her after all. Why didn't she get the letters? Who was responsible for this complete act of mental cruelty?

She quietly stood up and told the director, "I have to go to the graveyard. I have to go and apologize."

As a side story, the writer spoke of an Interstate that was planned in the late 50's. The home was in the way, so it was to be torn down and moved to another location. The record shows that there was a certain dollar amount provided for this section of highway. It included monies for a cloverleaf. This was a rural area. No cloverleaf was placed there. The money was given to the county for this cloverleaf. What happened to the money? Did dirty politicians make off with it? One has to wonder.

At the workshop I won a prize. A year's free membership to the society. Will I attend the meetings? Will I become involved? Only time will tell. It does interest me. The answers will all be determined by how my experience goes when I attend the meetings. I plan to give it a fair shot. The drive is about 60 miles one way. Let's see what this society is about. My daughter will be 18 in the spring. I need to get involved in a few projects. I had plans to take an electrician class, a water color class and I was looking into some other things. I may as well give this opportunity a go, since it sort of fell in my lap.

Golden opportunity

When the dust has settled
and the sun has set
Let us take this moment

And never, ever forget.