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Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
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6:26 pm - Best Quote That Describes ME
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Jacqueline Diamond (copyrighted by Jackie Hyman) in Baby in Waiting, billing itself as a brain dead summer romance, contained a description of the heroine on page 103 that fits ME:
"While other people might think outside of the box, she thought outside of the universe."
I hit that and just roared with laughter... Been there, done that - had that effect on people.
current mood:  amused
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| Friday, March 29th, 2013
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6:50 pm - Early Spring Recap ~ State of Pandemonium
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I'm pretty well over my winter depression. The new glasses help a bit, but mostly just point up that the real problem is my inability to drop off to sleep readily, or, once up to use the john, drop off again. It's been coming out in funny wordings that I need to be writing down, but the clipboard keeps falling under the bed. (I grab for it, hit it just so, and SPLAT.) I have on my shopping list a clipboard and pad that are the size of a paperback book. Maybe I'm just fooling myself that I won't be equally clumsy with that. Sigh.
We had five inches of snow Sunday, but at 2:20 last night, I glanced out the bathroom window, generously lit by a fabulous moon. I looked again. No white splotches (some of the snow was gone, but where the drifts had been, a few inches were still piled around, easily seen from the window. I didn't want to turn on the lights [which somehow activates my brain with a vengeance], so I grabbed the tiny indoor/outdoor thermometer, held it out in front of me as I stood in the doorway facing into the dark bedroom, then switched on the light. 73° inside, 41° outside. The absence of snow was REAL.
On the way to drop off my tax material, I passed piles still on northern and western banks, when in recessed holes. We've had a string of 60+° days - just lovely.
I went down the hill with three sacks (chest high on me- huge former animal food 50# sacks from a neighbor) of trash to burn resting on the trunk of Audra, the Audi. The snow was only one day gone = ground cover still wet, the wind totally absent = perfect "clean it all up" day. I park near a pile of dead branches I've been working on burning for two or three years. They're finally dry enough to catch. I put a plastic store bag full of wadded up catalog pages in the center of a pile of partially burned items, some wood, some paper, catch it on fire, and smile as the smoke trail lifts up straight into a clear sky.
I reach behind me for a second bag. The smoke follows my hand, burning briskly toward my car in the driveway, 2' from the fire. I toss the bag in my hand on, slide in and back out onto the road, parking past the first pole marker with the white reflector on it, well away from any damage to my
"baby". I walk back and feed all the stuff that made it down the hill with me into the fire, slowly. It switches to a North West flow, blowing it into my face (yes, I'm allergic to smoke, of course - the joke among my smoking friends is that no matter where I move, the smoke follows immediately, maliciously.) I step down into the ditch. It switches to straight west, again pulling into my face. I retreat to the car, scooting past the sedate puffs up the drive to the trash sack that had slipped its surly bounds and flew. Onto the heap it went. Some of the good sized tree limbs caught.
I took the black bucket that formerly watered horses during road trips and carried water to the drive, handy if needed.
Two spots occasionally sent plumes upward. I returned to the house to the green "Corydon Library" tote, and selected a volume. Sitting on the roadside, I read to page 51, then dug an old tin can, blackened by smoke, from the "cool" pile, and doused each individual limb giving off smoke. The 4" thick one took two cups of Campbell soup can water before it gave up smoking for a cleaner, more healthy existence. May he rot in peace.
current mood: comprehensive
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| Thursday, March 28th, 2013
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7:53 pm - Two Faced's Tom
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Today, as I walked down to the mail box in 61° weather, I saw Two Faced's mostly white tom poised majestically on the basement porch. He watched me go by alertly, but did not shrink back as he generally does. When I returned, he was gone.
She's taken to wanting to go out instead of using the kitty litter the past few super warm days, so I guess bringing her "friend" home as well is to be expected.
current mood:  relaxed
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| Monday, March 25th, 2013
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2:18 pm - Romeo and Juliet Moment, Cat Style
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Two Faced brought home a stray huge white tom with a few black spots the last time she came in heat. Since then, I've seen him out by the pond beside the house several times. He'll peek at me around a corner of the house, but I've never seen him come eat.
Once, Two Faced was sitting on the crate she queened in (it was tipped up on end and had an old sheet covering the holes, making it perfect for her to see out the bedroom window. The sheer curtains were draped over the ends as if it were mosquito netting, making a little perch for her. The tom and her black daughter from a previous queening were sitting, one behind the other a few feet, directly under that window. A Romeo and Juliet in the balcony scene moment, with a spurned woman standing behind Romeo...
current mood: relaxed
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| Sunday, March 24th, 2013
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2:13 pm - Snowfall
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CM told me we got 5" by noon today. I took a shovel and scraped the front porch and steps clear-ish about an hour ago. The lower steps were filled level with the next highest one, so that's more like seven to nine inches in that corner. Not much wind, but snow blows and piles there deeper than in other places, I've noticed. Once the porch was walkable, I fed the outdoor cats. I'll bring the pan of food in so it won't fill up with snow when they've had their fill, then put it out again later.
current mood: comfortable
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| Friday, March 22nd, 2013
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2:23 pm - Stray Attack
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Two stray dogs cornered Spelunker, who is declawed in front, but decided he wanted to be an outdoor cat. I heard the "I've treed it" barking, one voice the same as I'd heard once last week, and went out to the two board fence keeping horses off the septic and ran them off with a livestock whip, but Spelunker was really in trouble. He was tucked back end first into a cedar tree, boards of the septic fence on one side. He was foaming at the mouth, panting, eyes glazed.
I wanted to pick him up, but thought it might not be a swift move right off. I talked to him, then finally touched the top of his head. When he arched into my hand, I cuddled him to me. I carried him into the house, setting him on the hall tile, then went into my bedroom to get into something suitable to wear into town, intending to have the vet look him over. When I got back, I couldn't find him.
Two Faced came out of the guest bath, where her food, water, kitty litter pan, and milk crate full of kittens is, and "pointed" at the couch, about half way down. Maybe she is channeling Sweetie, my Irish Setter, even though she was not here back when I had my string of dogs. I can't move the couch alone, so I lay down (knowing I'd not be able to get up well) and used a yard stick to "feel" him. Nothing. He used to go up into the under cloth as a kitten, so I figured that's where he was. The couch is too cluttered to sit on at the moment, so that was safe, but far from ideal.
About six that evening, I took cat food outside onto the front porch and poured it into a Dollar General plastic kitty litter pan that is big enough for all my outdoor cats to put their heads in at once. He heard the sound of the food hitting the pan, and as I opened the outside door to come back in, he darted out between my legs.
One dog was a beagle, but the other was a "mutt", smaller, thinner, but vicious. Kinky white hair with a few black spotted areas - some kind of a poodle mixed with rat terrier? Who knows. If I hear that bark again, I'll take the computer out and try to get a photo of them. I don't know whose dogs they are. Last week, there was a large, broad, several tones of brown long haired dog leaving the driveway while the yip that belonged to the whiter little dog could be heard in my west pasture, not 20 feet from my trailer where Spelunker was cornered this week. Evidently, when only one dog is on him, he could get away.
I'm hiring a guy to put thin boards every so often around the septic fence, just wide enough to admit Spelunker, but not the smallest dog, who is just a bit bigger and WIDER than Spelunk.
current mood: Furious
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| Friday, March 1st, 2013
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1:30 pm - Old Cherokee Blessing
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Carla Cassidy, in Scene of the Crime: Mystic Lake, on p. 134, has her MCF comfort her son, both Native Americans, with an old Cherokee blessing I'd never heard before, but enjoyed.
"May the warm winds of heaven blow softly upon your house. May the Great Spirit bless all who enter here. May your moccasins bless all who enter here. May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows, and may the rainbow always touch your shoulder!"
current mood: serene
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| Thursday, February 21st, 2013
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1:13 pm - Best Cooking Double Entender
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In Homeward Bound, by Marin Thomas, on page 118-19, her rich male main character wants to help her poor female main character with an upcoming project, a new roof on a dilapidated building. He helps, via a "historical restoration fund":
...For a fleeting moment, she'd hoped he had petitioned the city council members for her -- because he'd changed his mind about wanting her to leave. "Are you here to work, or just talk?"
"Work. The others will be along shortly."
"Others?"
"I called in a few debts. Six, to be exact."
He may have purchased the supplies, but he wasn't running the show. "I'll let you and your debts help on one condition."
Laughter twinkled in his eyes. "You have a condition?"
Trying to keep a straight face, she insisted, "After the roof is replaced, you have to stay and watch the fireworks with me tonight."
He rubbed a hand along his jaw. "Does the invitation include supper?"
Leave it to a man to think about his stomach when a woman was thinking of... other things.
"I've got hot dogs."
"Enough for six men?"
"No."
"Drinks?"
"A six pack of Dr Pepper."
Shaking his head, he fished his wallet from his back pocket and handed her three twenties. "Get enough hot dogs, sodas, and chips for my crew and I'll watch the fireworks with you."
Her eyes narrowed. "I suppose I have to do all the cooking."
He grinned, "Yep."
Nose in the air, she brushed past him. "Fine. I look forward to roasting all ya'lls weenies."
current mood: amused
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| Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
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4:10 pm - Darwin Revisited
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Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb in Delusion in Death, p.84, in a conversation between the husband/wife duo Roarke/Detective Dallas, profiling a mass murderer, "He wants blood, but he doesn't want to get bloody. He wants death, but doesn't want to kill-- not directly. He doesn't need to watch the lights go out, to smell the fear, to taste the pain. Playing God, yeah, but playing God with science."
(Roarke) "The two aren't mutually exclusive."
(Dallas) "No, but some insist they are. Like, God's all, zip, pow, and created an orangutan out of thin air."
"I simply adore your mind.
"Well, that's the nutshell from one side, and the other far end's all, no, uh-uh. No higher power out there. What happened was basically a giant fart in space, and boom."
"Absolutely adore it," Roarke repeated. "A space fart to orangutans?"
current mood: fascinated
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| Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
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6:28 pm - Persistent Alarm
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Around 6pm, the fire alarm across from the furnace went off.
No washer/dryer running, nothing cooking, the furnace quiet, I finally decided it was a low battery/false alarm.
Climbing up isn't much in my bag of tricks any more, but I did get the unit unscrewed from the wall. However, instead of a battery, I saw a plethora of wires.
I called MS, who, laughing, told me to change the battery. When I explained that I'd had that one replaced by the electrician, who'd tied the units together, he came on down, UNPLUGGED THE WIRES, disassembled the unit, where he found a 9 volt battery.
Yup, I got "the look".
Fortunately, I had that size in stock.
He popped out the spent battery, replaced it, then reassembled the unit, hooking it back into the wires, and mounting it on its wall base, so quiet again reigned.
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10:23 am - Hello, Tiger White
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Today, Tiger White came home. The woman who had taken him fell, shattering her shoulder. As he arrived, the local hospital, who had decided her treatment was beyond their capabilities, were deciding if she would fare better in Iowa City, at the University hospitals, or in Des Moines.
Needless to say, even if her surgery has the best possible outcome, she will be unable to care for the kitten. He's home, following me about when I go out, still a lovely personality.
Everyone wishes her the best.
current mood: Saddened
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| Sunday, February 10th, 2013
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4:23 pm - Good-bye, Tiger White
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A neighbor brought over a silver haired couple who were looking for a kitten. The weather was cooperative, sunny and warm, and the cats, although house raised, have been allowed to go wild. They ran toward people. I'd caught the best-tempered kitten, Two Faced's son by The Italian Stallion, Tiger White, and held him for ten or fifteen minutes, reminding him how "tame cat" felt. He got along well with the woman, but her husband did not even want to hold him.
I told them if he didn't work out, I'd take him back. They'd come prepared with a crate and off he went.
current mood: contented
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| Saturday, February 9th, 2013
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3:40 pm - Celebrate Memory
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Today is Dad's birthday. Traditionally, I call Mom to be sure she's okay... But today, her line was always busy. Well, she DOES have four children. I'm not sure how many of us actually try to call her on that day.
Dad loved airplanes. I got in the habit of watching something with airplanes/reading something about airplanes on the day. My picks for this year were Secondhand Lions with the biplane barnstorming beginning/end, and the short story by Roald Dahl Garde au Chien (or whatever is French for Beware of the Dog - I can't seem to get it right.) It is a very well-done WW II pilot shot down story that was made into a good movie. I've watched the movie version in other years, but this time, I read the actual story.
[Deciding to fact check before publishing, I looked it all up. I'd misspelled Roald's first name, as well as all three words in French. The movie was called 36 Hours, and in Over to You, the title of the anthology containing the story, the title is given in English.]
current mood:  contemplative
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| Thursday, February 7th, 2013
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3:12 pm - DM Trip, Con't.
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I left out something in the DM trip story. I packed up the directions to the Valley West Mall's eye dr.'s location, the coupon for extra work on the car, the tubes of paint to put on a scratch I got sliding into the mail box on ice, the grocery list, etc. in a plastic bag, hung it on the front door handle (the one I used TWICE to pack up what I did remember to take with me, and feed the outdoor cats before I left), then hunted through my purse, the interior of the car, the trunk, back to the purse,emptying everything out to find the tubes of paint, as I REMEMBERED packing them. As the day progressed, and I missed the directions, and finally, the shopping list, it all came back to me. Once I was home and still could not turn up the two tubes of paint/clear coat to repair the Audi, I remembered packing it all up the night before so it was ready to go to prevent forgetting anything. I also had a detailed time/place list in order, with what I needed for each stop.
current mood:  silly
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| Wednesday, February 6th, 2013
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11:00 pm - Confusion During Travel
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Today, I managed to stack three appointments on the same day, padding my "best guess" time for every segment of the trip.
Good idea, right?
Foolproof, right?
Real life shouts back "WRONG!", followed by maniacal laughter.
I had one of my "confusion" days. I got to within two exits of where I needed to go, got engrossed in a news story on the radio, and caught just a quick glance at a road sign. I spotted I-35, and ASSUMED I'd overshot the exit and was at the one where I-80 and I-35 separated. I turned off, not immediately realizing I was going SOUTH on I-35, not west on I-80. The first exit I came to was marked "I-35 emergency route". Not wanting to go on a tour of the countryside without a map to route myself back, I went on. Clear down to Highway 92 before hitting another exit. My 15 minute cushion was now gone. I got turned around safely and headed back, only to again chose a wrong road. I found myself going east in a spot with another cloverleaf only 2 1/2 miles away. That put me back on the road I'd started out on, BEFORE the exits I messed up on. I'd turned off the radio and was watching like a hawk. I easily turned off two exits past the one I had only glimpsed, and found my way to the Apple store with no further adventures, but 30 minutes late for my appointment. The man accommodated me, but that also meant that I'd eaten up my travel time (30 minutes to go 6.9 miles, but since it probably would have been in heavy traffic, I'd allowed slop.) So I left for Merle Hay Road AT THE TIME I should have been arriving.
Would you believe, I mis-did the exits from I-80 to I-35 north and wound up on 235 heading into Des Moines? Could it go more wrong? YES, OF COURSE it could. When I'm having one of my backward days, anything is possible. The first exit I hit was marked EXIT ONLY. I needed a cloverleaf, so I drove by. Passing the spot, I saw a freeway entrance, which could have been accessed by traveling underneath the highway, maybe two or three blocks, at most, but by then, it was too late. The next exit also was marked in large letters EXIT ONLY. Again, unsure I'd find an entrance, I drove on. As I passed, I spotted that all important freeway entrance. The third exit was also labeled EXIT ONLY, but I took it anyway. It was 8th street, where the Apple store used to be. I knew the lay of the land, so I took it, drove a few blocks north at the stop light and came back onto the freeway, a mere 12 miles from where I'd needed to be.
The car dealership accommodated my lateness, and with the next appointment not scheduled until 1, I was able to do that one reasonably well. I'd told the people the trouble I was having, so the guy showed me step by step how to enter and use the on board nav feature. He entered the Audi garage in it, and left it set up for Valley West Mall, where the eye doctor appointment was. (I would usually have waited until I could catch my preferred doctor at Merle Hay, but I wanted all the appointments on the same day -- TO SAVE MILEAGE...)
Real life trip planner: I drove off route, to a KFC, ordered lunch, knowing I'd reheat it later in a gas station. Audra's onboard GPS was a bit more sophisticated than the one I'd bought for the Acura. If I chose a different route in a big city with a lot of street choices, at first, it will say things like, "Make a U turn, if possible" or "turn left, then left again" (sending me around the block so that I'd go the route they wanted... instead of recalculating using a different route. It got real insistent when I deviated to the Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch at the drive-through in mid-route. Funny.
I got home without further silliness.
I've been going to that car dealership since 2001, and to the Apple store for years. I really miss the internal sense of north, south, east and west I had before nearly constant ear infections over a 9 month period robbed me of it. Most days, I can compensate well, but not always. I can think of three times when I just couldn't get straightened around. Only once was in a strange place.
I had bought a Garmin GPS in Wal-Mart before I got the Audi with the built in one. For the money, it was fine. I gave it to my sister for her VW, but someone stole it when they left their garage door open.
current mood: Chagrin
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| Friday, December 21st, 2012
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8:43 pm - Velcro and the Pink Fluffy Scruff
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Today I got a great WINTER SOLSTICE present.
Every day, I try to get Bandita's three remaining kittens to drink for themselves and eat solid food now that they have TEETH. (Nine were born Nov. 11th.) They climb out of the crate most of them were born in, so they have been moved onto an inch thick pad of sheets in the guest bath room's bath tub, a tried and true kitten safe environment.
Whenever anything disturbs their sleep, they awake and scream their heads off for attention. I leaned over the shower handle, gripping the far side of the tub. Two kittens instantly attached themselves to a huge pink fluffy scrub used to shed dead skin. I unhooked it from the knob, lifting it over the side, two hangers on gently supported by a failsafe hand an inch below their dangling legs. All three rode the fluff or my t-shirt into the living room. Nothing so dull as being carried safe in my arms for this game trio.
Finding a tin of canned meat, Hormel ham stamped "best by Sept 2007" on the bottom, I opened it, taking it and the torn towel I use for kitten cuddling in case of accidents to my command chair, pulling the lap board over, laying cloth and can dow, then carefully unhooking claws. Yellow tom #1 was the first to get the idea that HAM IS GOOD. He couldn't tell the difference from the lip of the can and the ham at first, but he went about it with wild abandon that made my heart soar. Finally!
I carried the plastic styrofoam tray, three kittens, the mound of lumpy pink ham, and the towel into the tub. Setting them down, I shielded the tub from Two Faced, the grandmother, allowing the mother Bandita to join the fray.
Success! All three kittens have condescended to eat solid food.
current mood: joyful
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| Thursday, December 13th, 2012
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10:54 am - Another Advertiser Gets it RIGHT!
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The Budweiser beer commercial tribute to the Twin Towers.
The Xerox copier/Evian water? Baby Rollerskaters' ad.
Now joined by a laugh-out-loud commercial that popped up at random on the dictionary.com page. I wanted to see it again to check my remembered details for accuracy, but in five minutes of attempts, I was unable to locate it. I'll have to repair any errors whenever I happen to run into it again, I guess.
Some perfect 10's are seated on a bench, one digging in her bag, when a hotly walks by.
"Look at that!"
"I'd *LOVE* to unwrap that one!"
(Sink my teeth into? - can't remember. Maybe I'm overindulging my overactive imagination, which I've been wont to do. Sounds entirely too risque for a national ad campaign. Funny, though.)
The man turns toward the trio. "Excuse me?"
One girl triumphantly holds up a Three Muskateers' bar, which another immediately grabs, unwraps, and breaks into pieces.
I could almost smell the chocolate.
current mood: amused
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| Monday, December 10th, 2012
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10:15 pm - Chilled, Chilling, Chilly
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I've been sleeping poorly for quite a while now. Usually, I'm either too hot or too cold, drank too much water too close to bed time, or too little, only to wake up thirsty as though I'd been dreaming I was on a desert somewhere, walking for miles.
Or before falling asleep, I start dreaming up such an interesting story that I don't want to drop off to sleep and miss how it ends. Sleeping with pen/paper in reach has long been expedient.
But early Sunday, I woke up because I was hearing the repeated sound of the furnace blower... I'd been hearing it. Constantly. I woke up cold, and also because I was having a deja vu moment. This was not the first time I'd had a furnace that did not shut off, (but last time, the house stayed warm.)
I'd just had work done on the furnace pipe where it exits the house, and knew that the pipe up there was non-standard. I was afraid that the strong wind had blown out the pilot light, or something.
Nope. I called MC just before church Sunday, telling him what the symptoms were. He came mid-afternoon, getting the furnace running, but telling me he'd have to come back Monday with a younger man along, to do the climbing on the roof work.
They came, they saw, it conquered.
They'll come back tomorrow.
current mood: warm
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| Saturday, December 8th, 2012
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4:52 pm - Inferior
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I like today's quote of the day, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
I remember one horse show when Tagre (PtHA Champion Lady Integration) was still alive. Old Boheme farmer John Hanus had broken her and her dam to drive, the old-fashioned way, down the road, not around and around in a ring. Unflappable results. He had an old Amish-style "doctor" buggy I painted, had it reupholstered in red velvet, and cleaned up the harness before an appearance at the Pinto Horse International Championship show in Marshalltown, Iowa. John looked like an old-time doctor, minus the black bag.
The only other horse in the class was the President of the club's daughter and a purebred Saddlebred of excellent breeding, decked out in a fancy Viceroy. MD's mare was HOT. She blew up, balked, sulked, reared in place, while my mare made two complete laps of the ring.
MD won.
As I waited to change my horse's tack for the next event, MD snipped in passing, "Well, I guess you win the peanut butter award."
"At least my horse worked the class."
The show steward's eyebrows shot toward his receding hair line.
I *think* he kept standing there to see if I planned to file a protest.
Court of public opinion: Peons - 1; Rich Bitches - 0
Later that day, MD on a different hot Saddlebred, could not get her horse to pick up her lead. The judge and ring man were close to the side where I stood, with a bunch of other spectators. "I'll wait all day for the best horse in the class to take its lead."
I should have kept quiet, but I didn't. "Confused about what constitutes a halter class and what a performance is?" Whether the judge heard me, or not, the spectators did.
current mood:  accomplished
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| Thursday, December 6th, 2012
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5:10 pm - Kittens
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After frustrating days of mixing kitten milk replacer, using an eye dropper to feed the hords, having one a day die, including my favorite Queen Bee, Bandita is successfully raising three kittens - the biggest yellow male, and two tiny, nearly black tortoise shells. She still yowls when they suck on the wrong nipples, but with only three, they seem to be able to move around enough to keep her at it. They are very friendly. They'll be a month old on the 11th, and have been in trouble since the 22nd. Losing so many was exceedingly frustrating. The male is Bandita's body style and eye size, but the two females are long bodied and have eyes shaped like their Grandmother, Two-Faced.
current mood:  relieved
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