Guilty Pleasures

I happened upon an unexpected day off today and after working in the yard during the cool of the morning decided to indulge myself with a few of my favorite things - a little shopping, a few snacks and some reading (yes, I am a Kindle girl).

The Pumpkin Bark is on sale this week at World Market. It put me in a Fall kind of mood. Yum.

And how was your day?

Home Improvement

The recent cool evenings and mornings prompted the Husband and I to tackle a project this weekend. You know, the kind where husband and wife work together to meet a common goal and in the process bond together? (If I had a photo of dripping sarcasm I would insert it here).

Now, there are two phrases in the English language that will make me run in the opposite direction just as fast as I can. They are “Easy Installation” and the sound of the Husband's voice saying “That won’t be a problem”.

Here on Monday morning, I am proud to say we set a record for both lowest amount of arguments disagreements and fewest return trips to L***’s after the project began, and we now have some nice sun shades on the patio.

And lest you think the weekend was all work and no play, here is a photo from Saturday evening taken by our friend, Captain Morgan.

I hope your weekend was productive and you have a successful week! Only 4 more days until Friday. :-)

The Empty Dog Park

This is Maisoo and her owner. We met them this morning at Friendship Park while we were watching the ducks wake up. Maisoo is a Shi-tzu and loves the water as you can see here.


The real reason we went was to see the new Dog Park that opened there yesterday. As usual I was a few hours too late to make the Grand Opening so I went early Sunday morning thinking dog owners would have their pets out for exercise before it got too hot.
 

Nope.

The park was empty and quiet though there were signs that there had been furry four -  legged friends playing and barking earlier. So we sat there in the morning sun on a bench gazing at the colorful Frisbees scattered about and thinking how oddly this scene mirrored our own lives just two months after having to say goodbye to our 17 year - old Cocker Spaniel.


When the end came we swore (as we had the previous two times) that we would never fall in love like that again. That’s when Bill looked at me and said, “All the animal shelters are waiving their fees this weekend.” I reminded him that we each had trips coming up within the next couple of weeks, and we grew quiet again.

It will happen though.

2010: A Google Odyssey

There are so many phrases and words that are a part of our everyday lives that would have seemed like something out of an H.G. Wells novel when I was a kid. Internet, Texting, Cell Phone.... BLOGGER to name a few.

Remember when Google Maps first came out? Long before Google Earth and Google Sky and Google phones? It seemed like I always got lost even with the printed directions and when I tried to blame Google, people would first roll their eyes and then look with pity at the poor schmuck who didn't know how to read directions. I swear it happened more than once.

The husband and I got a pair of slick new Google phones a couple of months back. These are so cool. One of the things you can do with them is pull up directions in Google and then have the phone READ them to you like a regular GPS. (Like I can't do that, but at least the husband can't yell at ME.)

We took them with us on our recent trip to San Francisco. He had already printed out the directions via Google a few months ago, but we decided to play with the new navigation feature for the first time while there. We took the Pacific Coast Highway down to Monterey, but on the way back we needed to get to San Francisco in time to catch our flight home so we needed the easiest, quickest route - the Google Way!

Both the printed directions and the Navigator had us taking the 101 through San Jose, the 880 through Oakland and the 80 across the Bay Bridge back to our hotel to drop off the rental car. Everything was going fine. We had followed all the directions and were heading across the Bay Bridge on our last leg into the city, waiting for our next set of instructions. As we sat in line at the toll booth on the bridge there was nothing but silence for a minute or two. I checked the printed instructions and everything seemed to be in order.

That's when we heard the voice.

"In .3 miles make a U-Turn". We looked at each other. How could this be? We hadn't moved. Was the bridge even that long? Obviously we were headed in the right direction. We could see the San Francisco skyline looming in front of us. The thought crossed our minds, "How stupid would we look if we asked the man at the toll booth how to get to San Francisco"? We didn't. And once we started moving again the pleasant voice reaffirmed that we were going the right way.

I rest my case. That, my friends, is proof that Google can (and often does) get you lost.

Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?

HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. 

~2001: A Space Odyssey 

Home

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“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”~ Matsuo Basho

Last night I arrived back "home" after spending three weeks at "home" with my Mom while she recovered from hip surgery. I think the fact that I came home after spending three weeks at home means something, but it's buried too far inside my head and I haven't a scalpel long enough to slice into it and pull it out. I enjoyed this special time of bonding with my Mom - a sort of bizarre S&M ritual in which I was the master and she the slave for a change. EAT YOUR VEGETABLES, MOM! (The rest of you can get your minds out of the gutter.)

This trip back home was a disconnect trip for me because I finally realized that the place where I had grown up had become the place where I was grown up. It was where all the adults in town - the aldermen, the store owners, the deacons at church - were my high school classmates. Some of them surprised me with the lives they had made, others disappointed. We were are all living in a world that never dared cross the threshold of our minds while we were busy attending high school football games and proms.

So now I am home, but I am not Home; or maybe I am Home but not home. Perhaps I was There but now I'm Here. Maybe I never left either place.

My Hometown - Grub Stinks

I honestly don't remember what this was called when I was growing up, but it wasn't Fairfield Produce. (Obviously, I have no home movies of it.) It was a feed store, and by that I mean dog food, cat food, hog feed, chicken feed and God knows what else.

We had to walk past it to get to the Library, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't air conditioned in the summer so, let me tell you, the smell wasn't pretty. Which is why I always crossed and walked on the other side of the street. As if that mattered.

I vaguely remember Purina being a prominent word on signs and products, many of which were stacked outside.

(Disclaimer: It doesn't smell bad at all today. We even walked inside just to make sure.)

My Hometown - Dairy Queen

As long as I can remember there was a Dairy Queen in town. It used to be a much smaller building and only opened during the summer, but there was an ice cream "wagon" (think three wheeled motor scooter with a freezer on back) that my dad called the "Dilly Wagon".

We had a rat terrier named "Tuffy" that used to sit up and beg every time he'd hear the Dilly Wagon ringing its bell as it approached (I know because we have a home movie of this), and my Dad would usually buy Tuffy a Dilly Bar (before we knew dogs weren't supposed to eat chocolate). I think I was partial to the Mr. Misty or the Push-Up. Just so you know, chocolate didn't kill the dog - the neighbor did when she ran over him backing out of the driveway.

Eventually the Dairy Queen became Dairy Queen Brazier and began serving hamburgers and fries and built this "big" beautiful building where Tammy Wynette's tour bus stopped and someone took a picture of her holding an ice cream cone and hung it on the wall.

(Disclaimer: The picture of Tammy is GONE! Kept as a souvenir by the old owners, I suspect.)

My Hometown - Where It All Began

This is the hospital where I was born. I have no memories of being born here other than the ones acquired while watching a home movie of my Mom holding me in the nursery. You know how sometimes you see pictures or movies of a time in your life and years later you are not sure you actually remember the event or just remember the picture or movie? I'm pretty sure I just remember seeing the movie.

I do remember playing with plastic army men while I was in the hospital for pneumonia when I was less then 5 (yes, I was a tomboy). I also remember being about the same age when my Mom was having gall bladder surgery and thinking I knew my way to the soda machine and accidentally stepping on the elevator and ending up on the third floor and crying because I got lost. Thank God someone found me.

My Grandma used to live a block away from the hospital. Every time she saw the ambulance pull into the ER she would call all of her kids to make sure they were okay - no matter the time of day. Or night. This seemed very annoying until she moved pretty much across the street from us.

(Disclaimer: The hospital is bigger than it used to be, and they have added a helicopter pad atop it; but there is no longer a maternity ward. The closest one is 30 miles away so I believe that planning is essential.)

My Hometown - Swimming Pool

I had intended on blogging about the place where I grew up while I have been visiting my hometown. It didn't take me long to realize that every time I started to take a picture of a place that held memories of my childhood I would have had to preface it as "This used to be..." and decided what's the point of that?

But then I realized that even the most basic description "The main drag consists of two one-way streets which travel in opposite directions" would include the disclaimer "The number of stoplights along them have doubled from two to four".

So, what the hell?

Not surprisingly, the first place that Cousin Kathy and I visited was the public swimming pool. If we weren't at the library or on the tennis courts on a summer afternoon then we were splashing around here from the time we were only allowed in the "baby pool" until well after the first frightening jump off the high diving board.

My uncle was park superintendent. Every year he gave either me or my cousin a swimming pass for our birthday. ( I always hated her it when she got the pass and I didn't.) We couldn't wait for the temperature to hit a balmy 65 so we could go swimming. We would walk to the park or ride our bikes and swim all day and then come home starved and make the most God awful triple decker sandwiches - and by that I mean we would put anything we could drag out of the cupboard or refrigerator on them.

(Disclaimer: The high dive is gone, and there are now cool beach scenes painted on the walls.)

New Hometown News

More front page news:

Reports Seeing Goodyear Blimp

Terra _____ reported to the Press Saturday seeing the Goodyear blimp flying over Wayne County in a southeasterly direction.

It was seen in the Cisne - Johnsonville area headed toward Geff.

(I was going to tell you about the "big load", but I haven't stopped laughing yet.)

Goodbye To A Friend

I feel a little guilty for posting this because so many people are going through difficult times, but we had to put our 16 year old Cocker Spaniel down on Friday. This is the third one, and it never gets any easier. Though our other two cockers were sick with terminal illnesses this one, who was probably the least healthy of the three, was more or less just OLD and feeling the effects of old age. He had a myriad of health problems through the years which could be treated but not cured and added to that he had lost his hearing and eyesight and had already fallen into the pool several times.

Looking back, I realize that he hadn't really felt good for a couple of years and I waver between feeling guilty for waiting too long and guilty for doing it too soon. In the end, my husband and I both knew it was time and had known it was coming for awhile, but you are never quite prepared for the end.

I honestly don't know how people who lose children can survive after such a loss because my heart is broken in a million pieces right now over a dog, and I feel so damned guilty about that; but I don't know how to make it stop.

Hometown News

So, I am home now for the next 3 weeks helping my Mom recuperate from hip replacement surgery. She had surgery 3 weeks ago and is doing absolutely fantastic. Determined not to miss doing her exercises, I now have yet another reason to add to a long list of reasons I admire her and call her my hero. My husband and I have both been blessed by strong maternal figures who have set the best examples I can think of.

I grew up in a small town with a population of 6,000, and thirty years later it's smaller still. While businesses have come and gone and our classmates have become grandparents, some things have never changed - mainly the same churches are on nearly every corner and the local clubs (American Legion, VFW, Elks, etc) are the primary forms of entertainment. Those clubs were around long before our county voted to allow the sale of alcohol when I was in high school.

Our local paper along with the local radio station has always been the main source of information. Not much more than a gossip rag, it has employed our city's finest journalists and been the butt of many jokes over the years. I can't think of a single issue that couldn't provide fodder for Jay Leno. Here's a recent story:

Famous White Squirrel Dies

A white squirrel famous for the past two decades in a neighborhood east of Fairfield has died.

Charles and Betty _____ , who with their neighbors have enjoyed watching the squirrel for about 20 years, report that the neighborhood has missed seeing him lately.

Unfortunately, the ______ found while cleaning their pool that the squirrel had drowned.

Everyday I Write The….

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I could say that another chapter in my life has closed, but truthfully it never really felt like a chapter as much as a footnote. It never felt right, never felt like it was really part of MY novel or at least the one I have been writing for the past 50 years.

I think that maybe for too long I have been listening to my head more than my heart. That’s not a bad thing. It can keep you out of trouble, but it can also keep you from enjoying the story.

There is nothing wrong in doing what makes you happy; no need to feel guilty doing it. It’s what you work for, and maybe you’re surprised at first that you finally got to that place. The journey for some takes longer than others, some never finish at all. Others never dare let themselves arrive.

Don’t be afraid to go there.

Love Of My Life

I first laid eyes on him when I was 9 and he was an 8 year old playing on my cousin's pee wee baseball team.

Never really thought much about him again until I was 16 and we worked at the same grocery store .

Started dating him when I was 17 and he asked me to Homecoming. I had to drive because he didn't have his license yet.

When he was 18 he enlisted in the Navy. I thought the 2 months we had to spend apart would never end. It seemed liked forever.

My nickname for him is "Hurry Up and Wait" because every time he tells me we are going somewhere I get ready and end up waiting while he: (1) gets a drink of water (2) Hunts for his pager (3) Looks for his keys (4) Goes back into the house while I sit in the car because he forgot his cell phone.

It's a joke that every time we go out to eat he manages to drop food on his shirt ("We're going to need to treat that").

I love the way he says "Thank you" in a sleepy little boy's voice at 6:30 AM when I hand him his lunch box as we get out of the car heading into work.

I love listening to him help his baby sister with her algebra homework on the phone.

I even love the way he drives me crazy sometimes.

Today is the "30" of our 50/30/10 year. (My 50th birthday, our 30th anniversary, year 2010 - I even love how he has a thing for numbers even though I hate math.)

I often tell people we've never had a honeymoon, but the truth is that we did, and it's lasted 30 years and counting.

Happy anniversary to the best husband in the world. I'll love you for another 30 years and longer.


(30 Days of Music, Day 15: "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat)

Tag…I'm It

It looks like  I’ve been tagged by my cousin, Nancy. I don’t usually play these games, but the 30 days of music gives me a chance to share some of my favorite music for the next month. (Lucky you!)

I’ll answer the questions and if you are reading this then consider yourself tagged. (Too late to back out now!)

1. Are you where you want to be?
Right now? No. Right now I would like to be on some tropical island sipping an umbrella drink and asking the cabana boy to bring me a nice…wet….. Huh? Oh, in my life? I don’t worry about if this is where I want to be. It’s where I AM. Because it’s where I am it’s the best place in the world. That doesn’t mean I may not choose to go somewhere else, but no one is going to take me there but myself.

2. What book are you reading right now?
“One Night in Boston” by Allie Boniface. It was a free Kindle download and sounded interesting. I am waiting for “Beatrice and Virgil” to come this week. If you read “Life of Pi” then you know what a great author Yann Martel is.

3. How do you relax and renew yourself?
Going out for a hike with my camera. Sitting outside listening to the birds sing and feeling the cool breeze. Listening to the rain.

4. How do you want people to remember you?
With a smile.

5. Do you believe in ghosts – yes or no – but explain?
Yes. I remember when I was a little girl and I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I saw my Mom standing in my bedroom doorway. I remember calling her and then she disappeared. I got up to find her and my Mom found me wandering around the house, calling her name. I’m sure that Mom just thought I was sleep walking. A few years later, when I was a “tweenie” I was going through an old box of photos and found one of my Mom that I pinned on the bulletin board in my room. She saw it one day and asked me where I got it. Then she told me that was a picture of HER Mom, my Grandma that I had never met. I’m still convinced to this day I saw my Grandma that night in the doorway.

Today’s music is the from best band you’ve never heard, The Damnwells, and “I Am A Leaver”.

Superhero Me

I am invisible.

I know this because I walked into the eye's doctor's office the other day and waited at the front desk for the receptionist to appear and greet me. After a couple of minutes two, then three, of the staff walked right past me without saying a word. A minute later they walked right past me again, too involved with the Great Battery Hunt to acknowledge my presence.

A few minutes later (or maybe just two - waiting seems like forever) I stood there still, growing a little more impatient, and someone came in through the door behind me. "We'll be with you in a minute," I heard a voice yell from the back.

(More gabbing from around the corner.) Finally a woman came out and looked at the lady standing behind me and said "May I help you with something?" I felt my ears get warm, and then I blurted out the most immature phrase I could, "Hey, I was here first."

Sweet smile apologized and took my glasses while I waited. And waited. The lady who had come in behind me finally took a seat. But, good Lord, you should have heard the screams of delight when the FedEx man walked in with a special Saturday delivery! Four women in tacky looking smocks swarmed him like a bunch of bees on a honey hive.

Someone has been trying to sabotage my Happiness Project. Why are they harshing my marshmallow?

The Elusive Gila Woodpecker

I first started hearing him in December, shortly after sunrise. He would visit briefly again around 4 PM. Once I saw him staring down the feisty hummingbird I had named Sluggo at the hummingbird feeder. Sluggo won that showdown as he does every duel. Other hummingbirds, bees, even woodpeckers were no match for him.

I decided to put food out just for him, but it was still the sweet hummingbird nectar that he craved. I eventually attracted House Finches and a few Goldfinches. I would hear his call frequently, then watch him fly away just as I grabbed my camera. Time and again we replayed the scene. Over and over and over.

   Sunday morning my husband saw him eating from the new
hummingbird feeder I had put out the day before. And sure enough, just as I reached the patio door with my camera he took off. Someone told me that maybe he was my spirit guide and paid me daily visits.

To tell me what? "Ha Ha, you can't catch me"? Or just maybe that chasing dreams is more rewarding than  living them.

Careful What You Wish For

Sunday. One more day and then back to work. The past week was rough. Not work-wise. I just wasn't at the top of my game. I was really, really not liking my job much.

Then on Friday it looked as if there was a very real possibility it might end in April, and I was surprised at how disappointed that made me.

If You Were A Bird, What Kind Of Bird Would You Be?

I pick this one.

Letting Go

 

The hardest part, I'm sure you know,

of hanging on is letting go.

Letting go often means

reaching for something you 

are not quite comfortable grasping

and hanging tightly onto it.