Drafts . . .

I found some of my blog notes in the draft folder - I guess I never completed them so I put them on here today.  I write on the blog on my iPad and then actually publish it from the computer because it's easier to work on the computer for corrections and photos etc. Well then, I'm slipping! Damn.

Almost blown away . . . Another oddity from August 2016

While puppy was in The Shed with Perry I decided to use the Black&Decker vacuum to clean up the carpet near the door and the crumbs around the table. Forgot I had my little bitty puzzle out on the table top and blew a few pieces to kingdom come before I realized it. It wasn't too awful but I didn't empty the bag just in case I sucked some of those that may have been blown to the floor.

We left about 8:15 this morning for McComb, Mississippi to shop. It's an easy drive but almost an hour an a half west on I12 and north on 55. It worked out very well as we had a second breakfast at Waffle House, the best crispy pecan waffles, super crispy bacon and coffee. We also picked up one of my prescriptions at CVS and then we found Hobby Lobby. P&D's Pop bought some balsa to build his latest plane. He tried to buy balsa last week at Michael's here in Denham Springs but the floods had already caused problems so he ordered it on Amazon but the floods have again caused problems and now Amazon is late delivering so it's a good thing we drove almost 3 hours for wood! We also went to the Super Walmart for groceries so we did get a lot accomplished. I'm in the process of making the fourth bread to give to neighbors who still have many extra mouths to feed. I had run out of flour and we bought extra eggs and butter. This bread is already marked for Lisa next door. We stopped to talk with her and although they're fine, just as we are, she has Cox for her Wifi and it's not working so she had been going from neighbor to neighbor to get on line and use her phone. We had her come here and get our password so she can at least keep in touch with her Dad. It's amazing how many things you take for granted. I'm glad we took the trip to Mississippi. There were no lines anywhere and although it seems that quite a few people from Walker have also made the trip it still wasn't crazy busy. Big Kiddo had to wait for a person the come out of Walmart in Zachary yesterday before he could go in to shop. The store was fine but there was only one cashier. They also didn't have any bread left on the shelves! We certainly have plenty of food now. I gave Lisa a gallon of unsweetened tea because the date is still good and we don't drink it very much.

She was a riot and gave us their cell phone numbers and to,d us to call them when we go back to McComb so she can tell us how to get to their second home in Liberty, MS so we can stop and make ourselves a cup of coffe and relax on such a long trip! She sounds as if she lives in Rhode Island! They have Jerry's Aunt's home and they and his family, aunts, uncles, cousins have 150 acres to roam is as they please. She showed us photos of the deer she has shot and one of her blinds. Jerry has a deer stand that is 18' tall. When he brings his grandson hunting he puts him on a tether! This is southern living native style.

Skittering leaves . . . a Capella Woodpecker vocals . . . This is odd - I found it as a draft from November 2014

Refreshing walk up the street this late morning. It certainly warms me up so much so that I have to remove my extra fleece hooded jacket. Glorious day, a whopping forty-three degrees, breezy, sunny clear blue skies, nary a cloud to hinder the low sun's attempt at warming the northeast. Feel like a million bucks as Pa used to say. I always  have a chat with Ma, Pa, Little Louise, Pépère Bonnin, Matante Rose, Gram and Angie on these walks. No wonder I am refreshed and ready to hang tough when the world seems to be falling apart.

The Bulletin finally got their act together and the paper is getting here before Grampa leaves for school. That's nice because it means I can be lazy and not have to go out and pick up the paper myself. It seems the Bulletin gave the new carrier a week or so to get used to his delivery route before making him deliver all papers before the 6am deadline. And . . . drum roll please . . . I have a new seat for my garage mood swing. I've been hinting for at least a year to Grampa that I was at the point of almost, not quite, but almost getting slivers on my derrière from the old board. Well . . . as fate would have it he built a dog house for the cooks at the Roadside and I found a perfect size piece of engineered wood on the garage floor under the saw. Since it was just haphazardly dropped there I have claimed it for myself and hidden it away for use in the Spring. It's hidden because you never know around here when Grampa might remember where he dropped something and decide he needs part of it for another project. It's mine. I claimed it first and that's that. Of course I may have to ask him to paint it for me so I don't catch my designer jeans and shred them to bits.

Damnation . . . I'm good . . .

I called Sirius XM today to cancel our subscription for the car and for the house. I'm sick of the price going up each year so I spoke with a nice oriental man with a somewhat difficult accent but we worked it all out. I told him I expected to pay $100 total for both the car and the house radios a year. They are asking about $120 for the car and about $13 a month for the house! So I had a canniption fit and he was very cool. We will get both radios, car and home for $40.31 for five months and then I can renegotiate when this promotion is up in July. I told him that I'll cancel if it costs me more than $100 per year when July comes around. He said they'd send me fair warning about the expiration date so I will have plenty of time to talk to them and see what they can offer me the next time! I do not give them our credit card number so it will all be done by mail with a check. Expect to have to go through this again in July but it's almost fun. He was a very nice person to deal with! Hope I get him again.

Getting back into the swing of normalcy after the wonderful family get together a couple of weeks ago. Seems that youngest daughter and her fiancé may be here for a short visit in early September and middle child with husband and our grandson may be here in June! Yikes, our glasses overfloweth! We know we can visit with our son fairly often as he only lives about 3/4 of an hour drive from here. Life is just about the best it can be for us. We've been in our home a year and it's still so surprising to me that we can go outside in short sleeves in January! I realize it's not always this pleasant but wow, it feels so good to be outside everyday.

Had my haircut today; Erica is having trouble getting my hair to behave! I think it's the water. It likes to stick out in the oddest places! We spoke about her kids who wait for the bus at 6:30 in the morning in front of our house because they live on the circle. I told her they could wait on the porch when it rains and she was happy about that. P&D's Pop is almost always up before six so it won't be a surprise if he sees Juliana and Dalton sitting on the glider at breakfast!

Quote:  Another life, if it were not better than this, would be less a promise than a threat.  __J.P. Senn

On a roll . . . two things figured out . . .

And my very own Red-headed Woodpecker is back!  Yay!

I have to think too long to find solutions to my problems. I've figured out how I can stay on Facebook without wanting to bean almost every friend at least three times a day! From this day forward I will only look at notifications and check out the ones I choose. No more looking at random merdeski - I shall choose whomever I trust to be interesting, humorous, kind, perspicacious, honest and funny. No more crap - sick of crapola. And . . . I shall continue to take photos and post them just to please my own sense of awe at what this beautiful world offers us everyday of our lives and which we often ignore at our peril. It is too sad and cumbersome to dwell on the evil side of our humanness. I refuse to take part in the thickheadedness I find in all media and choose to make my very own niche. So there it is.

Plus - I managed to figure out why no one liked the Swamp Pop Jean Lafitte Ginger Ale. Yup, I'm not a soda drinker but I decided to give the last bottle of Swamp Pop a taste - hell's bells, people, it's ginger, get it, ginger! Of course it's peppery - too sweet, yes but peppery! So I added in a Dixie cup of BlueBell vanilla and it is perfectly delicious. Way to go, Miss Irène. And for the record book I shall quote from my last bottle " In late 18th century Grand Isle, Louisiana, when the gentleman pirate Jean Lafitte still patrolled local waters, you could find an abundance of two things - seafood and cucumbers; the latter being their biggest cash crop until World War II. Chances are if you walk into a Louisiana backyard garden on a warm summer day, you'll still find a few cucumber plants. Swamp Pop Jean Lafitte Ginger Ale blends the refreshing flavor of cool cucumbers with a spicy Ginger nod to Jean Lafitte's travels through Caribbean waters."

Okay, that's it for today. I'm signing off to finish up my gingery-cucumberie swamp pop.

Quote:  Tribulation will not hurt you, unless it does____what, alas! it too often does____unless it hardens you, and makes you sour and narrow and sceptical.  E. H. Chapin

Birthday Breakfast . . .

Started the day with breakfast at IHOP and hugs from Veronica, the head waitress. We don't normally go there on Fridays but we made an exception today. As a matter of fact we're only going to IHOP on Sunday's because that is one expensive place! We're attempting to be practical - not sure how long that will last. Of course P&D's Pop picks up his free pancake breakfast to go each time! He fills out a survey on line and viola free pancakes!

He's off to South Park and I'll be on my way to the Early Learning Center. I'm sure P&D's Pop will at least listen to the inauguration but I'll be otherwise occupied. I'm glad that we're changing the party in power and I have some hopes that we will see some improvement in what comes out of DC but I'm so tired of it all I may just wallow in self pity that I live in a time of ignorance, meanness, and hatefulness. I shall survive by not paying attention to it all and just just enjoy my day to day life here in southern Louisiana.

I've already completed two sets of exercises so now I'm off to the 3 year olds and baking a cake when I return.

Quote:  Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.  _____Shakespeare

Just perfect . . .

Winter in Denham Springs

This past week was just a perfect way to celebrate our new home. The three kids were here along with our grandson and two of the three better halves - one had to work and could not make the trip. Wow, I am so happy that we were all together and I felt so at home and comfortable with the gang. This was a perfect way for us to begin our fifty first year of married life - it has been a fantastic trip and we continue to roll on. You never know what life has in store for you but we have been  fortunate  that we've always managed to come out still in love,
happy, contented and still working on improving our lives. Can't really ask for anything more.

We'll be spending P&D's Pop's birthday with a quiet dinner at home - seasoned steaks, veggies, salad and a black coffee cake that he really likes covered with Kool Whip! It's the simple things that make me smile. My older brother's wife gave me the recipe for that cake many years ago and we still enjoy it.

Quote:  Peace is the evening star of the soul, as virtue is its sun; and the two are never far apart.   ___Colton

Playing the waiting game . . .

Middle child and our grandson landed in New Orleans earlier this evening and we're waiting for the next call - this time from their hotel in Baton Rouge. They will come here tomorrow morning and already be off and running with our younger daughter and G. by noon. They'll will be going to 13th Gate, some sort of "fun" place, where they will try to work themselves out of some rooms following hints and etc left for them. Not my idea of fun. Expect them back home in the later part of the afternoon so Kiddo can get to fly his Louisiana Drone! I'm certain Grampa will have it all charged up for him. Looks like we should have some great warm weather for our weekend get together. The eldest big kid and his wife are working tomorrow so I expect they will get here Saturday morning some time. We'll have  lunch at 1pm and hopefully get a few photos of the entire crew. That hasn't happened very often. I think the last time was in 2013 in Moosup and even then our southern daughter-in-law wasn't able to make the trip North and this time our northern son-in-law wasn't able to make the trip South. One of these years we may finally be able to get it all figured out properly! All of the kids have now been to our new home here in Louisiana but it will be the first time they will be here all at the same time! Yay! And for a few bonuses we'll have Kiddo, M and G! Cool beansies.

Quote:  Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.  ___Hazlitt

Wound up and no place to go until 8pm . . .

Hummingbird's Nest

I feel like I did when our Kiddo was born - waiting, waiting, waiting and so full of energy I cleaned under the fridge 40,000 million times and then the entire kitchen floor about twice on that day over 12 years ago. Today we're waiting on our youngest and her friend G. They are in transit as I write. Somehow the weather here in Louisiana is pretty outrageous. It is 32 degrees, windy yet sunny. Last week, or even a few days ago I was out walking in capris and a t-shirt. Hope the days warm up while D&G are here. The house is pretty damned clean as I've been scrubbing, dusting and washing. That may be my exercise for the day. I doubt I'll go for a walk in this cold wind! Have a few more groceries to get at Rouses and then I'll call us ready for a couple of our big kids to come home!

Quote:  Go to New England, and visit the domestic firesides, if you would see the secret of American Independence. __Religion has made them what they are.  ___Mosquera

Novel . . . alone for lunch . . .

My small rose covered with dew

Returned from the 3 quirky three year olds and no white truck under the carport! P&D's Pop is out helping his friend Gil with some control line plane problems. Yes, that husband of mine is a fixer-upper of just about anything mechanical. Somehow or other neighbors and friends just find that out . . . he never says a word but they know who to call! Pretty neat. So . . . I had hot chocolate and honey biscuits for lunch. I almost went to Dairy Queen for a Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard in chocolate with extra peanut butter cup but since I've already broken down once this week I decided to be good for a change.

A friend and her son were doing some shopping and errands in the Denham Springs area yesterday and they called to see if I'd meet them for lunch. That's a no brainer. I met them at Randazzo's and had the Wednesday Pasta Special - Chicken Spaghetti with the pink sauce. It was excellent. Not
sure if my friend enjoyed her sandwich too much. I don't think she's used to imported from Italy meats. I think they are a little harder to chew than American cold cuts but they are generally tastier. There were no real complaints though. I could have gone for a home made Tiramisu but again I chose to be good. I'm staying about a pound over my target weight and still walking about two miles a day. So I'm not unhappy.

Have gotten the house ready for youngest kiddo as she and G. will be here Saturday evening. I'm in a hurry to leave to pick them up. I want to go now! Crazy woman, I am. And a week from today middle kiddo will arrive in Baton Rouge with Kiddo but too late for a visit so we'll see them Friday. I'm really getting antsy. I'm afraid it will go by too fast. But we're so happy we'll be with all three of our children - no longer easy to get together.

Quote:  Going to law is losing a cow for the sake of a cat.   ___Chinese Proverb