Swings

I love the story this swing set tells. Remember twirling the swing around and around like the girl on the left? I could not do this often because I get sick easily. Then there is the girl stepping up onto the wood. And the younger boy hanging onto the older boys back. You can almost see the older boys frustration. I'm not certain the fellow in the black shirt saw me or just happens to be looking this way. I don't think he knew I had a camera at that distance.

Here is how far away the swing set was from me when I snapped the photo.

Happy Friday everyone. At noon today I start my vacation. I think I have 260 hours before I return to work if I have figured my math correctly.

I almost forgot! I think I will receive my nook today. I've been tracking it. It cracks me up that the UPS had to hand the package off to the USPS to deliver. I had the e-reader delivered to work. We are only there until noon today. Ack! The secretary said not to worry; that the mail comes at 10:30. I tracked it yesterday and UPS said they handed it off to the post office at 10:30.

UPS was very accommodating but try to get any help from the USPS! No way! My oldest brother is retried from the post office and sister 1949 still works there. This is one of her pet peeves. She loves to go above and beyond helping people. She gets so angry with her co-workers. I do not deal with her post office but the lady behind the counter would give me nothing. Nothing! No help whatsoever. Eh!

Anyway, it figures. This is supposed to be another "working" vacation for me. LOL! Of course I'll have pics of the nook, too.

Here he is

Here is the photo of the boxer standing in the sun that would not upload yesterday. I checked the blogger status and they say that while they perform maintenance users will not be able to upload images - on June 6th! What? Where are they located anyway that they are sixteen days behind the rest of us? LOL! Hey, whatever! I can't even imagine trying to maintain this hosting site, so kudos to them! The amount of work they have to do would be mind boggling.

When I get angry I tend to prune my outside shrubbery. I have been very, very angry. My lilac bush caught the brunt of it this time round. I hacked half of the thing away. No worries, though. I am sure it did the bush more good than damage. That sucker will bush out now, instead of reaching for the sky like it has been doing. I only touched half of it.

My right shoulder is starting to feel the strain. I just wish I did like most people do and clean when I get angry. Not a chance. Although I am getting the living room/dining room area emptied. I moved a 46 inch plasma TV all by myself to another room. So, no movie reviews for a while. Hey, did I hear somebody say "Thank God!"? Funny! The new laminated floor comes Monday in stacks and will be allowed to acclimate to the house temperature. They put the floor in on Tuesday. Pictures? Oh yeah. I'll try not to take them while the workers are in the shot, though. I don't do that.

Somebody's always sayin good-bye

I hate it when a relationship ends. Hate it hate it hate it!

Well, I told Slade and Sable the pups were coming back. When I said Cheech and Chong Sable sat up and started looking for them.

I had a photo of the boxer to post, but could not get it to upload. I do not have this issue often. I just hope it does not get unclogged and 40 shots of the same picture posts on here.

Seven year itch

Today marks the 7th anniversary of this blog. Whoop-de-doo. I almost forgot but Google reminded me that it is the summer solstice.

weigela

I shot a photo of this pretty flowering bush last month when my daughter moved into a house out of town. I guess she is going to move back home this week-end. Sigh.

I ordered a nook today.

It comes with a funny story. As always. I celebrated a late birthday bash with friends (former co-workers) and my list included gift certificates to B&N. I was very happy to get them. The next day my daughter and I drove to the "strip" in North Canton. I walked into the book store and headed to the center where a huge sign said e-readers.

The sales lady said "May I help you?"

I said "I'd like to look at a nook."

She said "Then you will have to go to a Barnes & Noble."

I was confused. I said "Then where am I?"

My daughter said "Mom, this is Borders!"

Aw, man!

It starts...

My tiger lilies. At least the ones that are not getting choked out by the Gaillardia flowers. I must separate them and replant a lot of them to other areas.

Shhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet and don't look now,  but I think I have found some moonflower sprouts by my bushes in the front of the house.  Don't look! I told you not to look! You will scare them away!

For those of you who have been around for a while you know that I used to have a huge cluster of moonflower plants. I did something wrong two years ago and lost it. A few stragglers ended up in front of my patio and produced a couple of plants. I see no sign of them in front of the patio, now. Now that I found them in the front of the house - maybe? I am so excited. I love them. I never had them until I moved to this house in 2002. They were the most wondrous smelling night flower ever.

Also for those of you who have been around a while, you may remember what is coming up. I have an Independence day blow-out every year. I skipped the year 2009 because of my daughter's graduation party was two weeks earlier. Who can forget the sumo wrestling mat? Oh what fun. If you want videos, go to youtube and search for "sumo wrestling new philadelphia ohio".  We are the videos with the huge red and blue striped mat.

You can see from the videos how very hard it was for the ones who had to keep picking them up. They became very tired very quickly. It was warm out. The really nice thing was the company left the mat and suits until Monday evening. My party was Saturday and I told my neighbors (who had a small party Sunday) to have a go at it. Hilarious!

It flattened the grass a little (yes, the mat did move a few feet) and it cost a couple hundred - but it was SO worth it. People talk about it still. I wanted to do something different for my daughter's party and in 2005 we rented a tent for my niece and her party and this company had some fun inflatable games that it rented.

Well, back to my blow-out. The invitations are made, I just have to mail them out. It will be July 2nd this year. I always coincide my event with the fireworks display. We can see the higher ones from my front yard (for those of us too drunk to walk over the hill to view them). My town also has a big festival in the park that week-end. 

I plan to have a craft and coloring table set up for kids. They always want to throw the Frisbee and play badminton with the adults and sometimes it looks as if they are going to get hurt. I hope to distract them with their own little play area this year.

My daughter and niece used to play a Sega Genesis video game of "The Lion King". I am not one to play video games, but I think to master the game you have to begin over and over again. This particular game said "It starts..." when the game restarted. I must have heard that phrase a million gazillion times!

Well, I have stuff to do, so I will catch you all later.

Needs sharpening

Heh, heh. No, not the photo. My lawnmower blade! My spare one has been at the implement equipment place for two weeks, now. I'll bet they send it somewhere else and have them sharpen it and then tack on 30 to 40 percent of the cost and bill me. My niece worked at a local dry cleaner that took shirts to another cleaners for its customers. Funny stuff.

I have resized this photo to 1024 x 800, but in the original you can really see the chewed up ends of the blades of grass.

I was looking over my June photos for this blog and realized two things. I made only half of them and I had very little cool colors (other than spring green) in them. No blues or purples (which I love). So, I went browsing for blues and purples and this is the first one I saw, so this is what you get.

I have always been fascinated by the story of Sybil. I remember watching Sally Field play the character and last evening caught a more recent production. Although I felt sometimes like the character playing Sybil was playing Sally Field playing Sybil sometimes. I swear they dubbed Sally Fields voice into the movie! And that was JoBeth Williams playing her mother! 

How do they get small children to play some of the scenes? In one the poor little girl was tied up and gagged and I know with editing and other such tricks they can put it all together, but still.

What?

Sable says "What? You want to see my green lips?"
Photo courtesy of my daughter with my camera.

wordpress

I've set up another one. I like this one better than the other.

If this blog decides to go bellyup, I have a second one here.

http://welcomeyoutomyworld.wordpress.com/

Cookie Cutter Housing

I worked at an automotive/hardware store in the late 70's and early 80's. I made a lifelong friend there. She was (is) about 14 years older than me, but very young at heart. She and I clicked right away. I've seen her through three divorces, she is now a great-grandmother.

About fifteen years ago she left her job and her life to stay at home and care for her ailing mother. No easy task. She comes from a family with six children. Her oldest sister was wheel chair bound and lived in Florida. Her younger sister was off and busy with her life in Columbus.

The eldest brother provided the double wide for her and their mother to live - on his property. A couple of years back after thirteen years of lifting and caring for their mother, my friend had heart trouble and was admitted to the hospital. The mother died while my friend was in the hospital. She rarely got a free week-end or free time to herself. I remember one such week-end she escaped to my house for a much needed free week-end. The poor lady slept the entire time - she was that exhausted. It took it's toll on her health and especially on her back. The mother could not walk or go to the bathroom by herself. My friend would have to beg a sister or sister-in-law to come and stay with their mother while she got a much needed hour or two to herself.

They finally qualified for a hospice care that came four hours a day to relieve my friend. She said that mostly she slept the entire time since she was up all hours of the night caring for her mother.

She did not get to say good-bye to her mother since she was in the hospital during the funeral, etc... She now stays at the double wide and has multiple medical problems of her own. One such recent incident is her teeth. She had to have them all surgically removed. Since she is no longer married she relies on medicare for her needs. Their answer was to send her to a Columbus dentist.

She did have that younger sister in Columbus that would take her to the doctor and get this done. The problem was getting her to Columbus. Her daughter has panic attacks and cannot drive anywhere other than around her home. Her son is in California with his family. I have no idea where the other two brothers are.

Do you think one brother or the younger sister would offer to help her? Not a one. I saw two of them yesterday and they were very friendly, chatty and just puttering around doing little odds and ends. The younger sister would take her to the dentist surgery but could not be put out to meet anybody halfway or drive down to get her and help her out. However, she certainly is willing to brag about her two Cadillac Escalades and all their latest GPS features, etc... Maybe she just did not have the money to put gas in these large SUV's. My friend was buying the gas, anyway.

My friend is also on oxygen. Years of smoking.

I drove her to Columbus to her sister's house and picked her up and took her home  yesterday. With the family that I have I just am totally mystified that sisters and brothers turn a cold shoulder like this. I was amazed and a bit confused. What goes on in a family that they all act like they care and love each other but when it comes to favors and time - they cannot be bothered?

The really odd thing was that if she did not get a ride on Sunday, her first ex-husband with his third wife were going to drive up and bring her home. She told me (after I offered to come up and get her on Sunday) that she would have died a slow death if she had to ride with them. One feels completely naked and vulnerable after having all of their teeth removed. It is a very  humbling experience. Her ex-husband was going to also have to bring his three sons (from  his second marriage) with him. They were older and I am certain they could have stayed home by themselves. I think he was just telling my friend how inconvenient everything was going to be for him but (sigh) he would do it.

Oh, the cookie-cutter part. Her younger sister lives in one of those housing developments where all the houses look alike. If it were not for the distinct wreath on her door, I am not sure I would have found it by myself. This type of housing is nuts!

Super Sunday

This photo taken by my daughter with my new camera.

We went to see Super 8 last evening. It was loud and I forgot to take any ear plugs. It was much funnier than I expected it to be. The kids really made the show. This is not my usual genre of movies but I really enjoyed it. I related to the music and the hairstyles (takes place in 1979).

I did not catch sight of my nephew or his car. The scenes changed much too quickly. Maybe after watching it a few times and him pointing out to me where and when - but I was just too caught up in the movie to think about what was going on in the background. The train wreck was totally awesome.

Irish Eyes

My daughter and a few of her friends and I were talking last evening. One friend is headed for Ireland in the early fall. He can't wait to see some Irish girls he said. My daughter wondered if all Irish were red headed. I mentioned P Brosnan.

I enjoy him as an actor. I was a little put out by a scene or two in The Matador but overall it was a little bit of a different role for him. I especially liked him in Mrs. Doubtfire and The Thomas Crowne Affair.

I had recorded a movie and finally  was able to watch it the other night. The Greatest. Brosnan's crying scene touched me and made me start to cry. No easy feat for this old gal.

Fortunately, I have not seen any of his work prior to Mrs. Doubtfire. I caught R Steele maybe two or three times. Yawn.

I think he is close to getting cast spitting out the same character movie after movie, but I think he is trying to branch out and take some artistic challenges.

Patriot Guard Riders

After the funeral procession I watched on Monday I heard about and educated myself about this organization.
Outstanding.

Road Trip

I has me a road trip today. Columbus. I doubt that I will get the odd chance to stop along the route and take any photographs of any scenery. It is predicted to be a scorcher today, too. Love the A/C.

I was caught at a little elementary school yesterday during a huge thunderstorm. I stood around with the handful of staff that are still working. They are all in a good mood because the students are gone and their last day is Thursday. Sigh.

Standing in the sun

It was about fifteen minutes before twelve when the secretary of the building I worked at announced that the superintendent was inviting anybody and everybody to stand outside as the funeral procession for a local fallen hero drove past.

Immediately I printed up some quick pics of "Support Our Troops" signs and went outside. I looked up and down the street. I walked up to a few folks and handed them one of the papers to hold. Flags lined the street. You can read the story here.

It would be forty five minutes before the procession rolled by. It was something to see. The sun makes me sick. As the heat beats down I get ill, faint and dizzy. Yesterday at noon in the heat I felt nothing but pride and sadness for this young marine and his family.  The amount of bikers at the beginning was a sight to see. The many men in full uniform (some in air conditioned cars, some not) was another breath taking sight.

No amount of sun would bother me this day. I was sweating profusely but it was one of the most memorable processions I have witnessed in a very long time. If not the most memorable. I would not have missed this for the world. We need something like this every now and again to bring our lives and our thoughts into perspective.

The staggering amount of people that drove to join us, parking their vehicles along the street or in our parking lot, getting out of their vehicles to stand proud and salute as well as the folks who came streaming out of their houses was beyond belief. The tears flowed. It was soul inspiring. It was a much needed reminder for this old gal.

I said I would check them out, so here is one of them:

A backup plan.

http://myworldandwelcomeyouit.weebly.com/

We got hail!

Well, not me in my little town. My daughter did over at her little town. She caught this photo with her phone and sent it to me. That is by far the largest hail stone I have ever seen. I've seen plenty of pea sized hail and maybe a nickle size, but never this size. Zounds!

We were in a tornado warning for most of the evening. The sirens just blew and blew. I made myself sick by not turning my air on yesterday and by the early evening I was sick from the heat. We were supposed to go to a combined graduation/birthday party but it was canceled when that storm whipped up.

We were waiting for my daughter's boyfriend to get off from work and he had to take a shower. I checked my cell phone and I realized that I should change the battery. I turned the phone off, popped in a new battery and sat down to wait. It was sweltering.

An hour later (after watching the storm come in and the weather channel) I decided that perhaps I better call to see if my daughter and her boyfriend were on the road to my house. Maybe they did not know of the tornado warning. 

Drat! I had forgotten to turn my phone back on after replacing the battery. A message popped up right away. Party canceled. I called my daughter. They were enjoying dinner in a pub in her town.

Grrr. It was almost too late to turn the air on. The air outside was turning cooler but I knew (the way my house was set up) that it would be hours before it cooled down. Previous owner did not like open windows. WTH? Nothing opened in the living room/dining room except the front door. Sweltering!

I decided to sit in front of the fan and look for a movie to watch. I chose unwisely. I have always liked J Statham and B Foster. The movie was much too gruesome for me and as usual the depiction of women was tawdry. It was The Mechanic. Sigh. Maybe I should have chosen a comedy but their depiction of women is just as bad. Seriously! The dog was given better treatment than the women in this movie!

Are there any movies that do not depict women as cheap, stupid and low? I am not a big fan of A Jolie, but would love for her to sleep with a guy in one of her movies and then leave a wad of bills on the nightstand as she leaves. On second thought, no I would not. Either way, that depiction stinks. Male or female.

A few weeks back, I did see "Morning Glory". That one was not horrible where women were concerned. I can "just" tolerate D Keaton in  a couple of her movies.

Oh, and btw. This movie Super 8 has a walk on appearance of my nephew. His car (I believe it is a '66 deep red/black cherry Buick Skylark) is also depicted in the film. It broke down during filming and they had to leave it there so it got more air time! LOL! Sigh. I don't suppose my nephew could get me a meeting with K Chandler. Do you? Naw, I didn't think so.

Seeds of doubt

So that is where the poppy seeds come from. Well, the kind that regrow the poppy for next year, anyway. I have no idea where actual poppy seeds that you eat come from. I read a bit about it on Wikipedia just now. Actual poppy seeds do not contain much opium so that Seinfeld episode where Elaine fails the drug test is more than likely all fiction. As if I needed proof. :)

The doubt part of my post. I have a sister who can probably be classified as an alcoholic among other things. I am over 50 and have been around her quite a bit. I believe that she misleads people to cause them harm or to gauge how gullible they are. My Mom said our Dad used to do this. For example - she tried (quite a few times) to get us to eat grass from the lawn. She sprinkled it on our dinner plates. She also tells people wild stories. I was in a bar years ago where she worked and the owner (a lady) was there cleaning. She was yapping on an on about my sister. She said "I asked your sister how she gets such clear skin, and she told me it was oleo. So I just keep eating and eating oleo."  My sister probably told her that. I think actually that oleo claimed to help skin "topically" but I didn't even start to go there with the lady. Why bother?

I had a co-worker who would believe wild things. Remember the e-mail that spread around a few years back claiming that oleo was one molecule away from plastic? She barked out "We are eating plastic!"

People can crack me up with their "taking things at face value" without questioning their origin. I am a big fan of Snopes. Even so, I am past the point where I would e-mail back to people that what they are spreading in e-mail is unfounded. I used to try to educate people but again, why bother? It's a waste of time. A few weeks later there is another mass e-mail telling another woeful story or telling another untruth.

Seeing that networking is my vocation, I am convinced that the real damage is the amount of useless bandwidth and time consumed by the spreading of this garbage. Please do us all a favor. Stop the mass e-mailing to everybody in your contact list. The forwards are the absolute worst. How often do you get an e-mail where you have to scroll down seven pages through all the previous "forwarded addresses" to finally get to the actual message?

Sixty large pictures in an e-mail sent in massive forwards can bog down a network to it's knees. The next time you are at work and the Internet is running slow think of your co-workers. Are they having a break and reading "fun" e-mails? And are they sending those cute puppy pictures to all sixteen people in their contact list? How about sixty people? Networks are so busy processing these mass mailings that they (the machines) have little time left to process the real data that is supposed to be handled.

I actually told a co-worker to remove me from her mailing list. I am convinced that this lady had (has) entirely too much time on her hands due to the amount of forwarded messages I kept getting from her. OMG! It got ridiculous. The religious people really pile it on. Good grief!

Whoops. This post ended up being more than just seeds of doubt. Okay, rant over.

I never can remember their name

I chose them because they are orange. They are very hardy. They have multiplied quite a bit since I purchased one plant a few years back. They are choking out my orange tiger lilies.

Turned cold here over night. It is now 46 degrees F. I am pretty sure they did not predict that when I checked the weather yesterday. I am certain I saw a low of 56. While taking the dogs out this morning I was freezing!

Snarly

A box full of wire hangers.