And she’s on her way back home . . .

Youngest is on her way from Detroit to Amsterdam as I write. It still amazes me that we are able to get to far off places so fast - tiring travel but impressive just the same. The NOLA Baby Cakes game last night was a lot of fun. I was impressed with Airline Stadium. It’s got to be a pretty old baseball park but they’re keeping it in good shape. They have a beautiful hill off of right field with a line of crape myrtles along the top. It is well mowed and it seems that you can buy tickets to watch the games from the hill. That’s pretty neat. Even though it was a night game it was still pretty warm in the stands. We did have a slight breeze blowing on us in our seats behind home plate. I don’t know what D paid for the tickets but the price of 4 hotdogs, 1 beer, 1 soda, 1 water and a scoop of dipping dots was about $50. Still I’d love to go again - gotta have a hotdog at a ball park no matter the cost!

P&D’s Pop had no trouble getting us to the game and home again. It takes about an hour and a quarter to get there. There was a bad accident on I10 as we came home but fortunately we were able to get by it before the road was closed. There is no room for error when you are driving that part of I10. It’s really just a very long bridge over the swamps and bayous with no lighting so an accident can strand people for hours. It looked like there were some people who were pretty banged up but they were all out of their vehicles waiting for the police. I did say lots of strong prayers for them. I hope the prayers helped.

Today I made a pretty good gumbo for lunch before we left for the airport. I really should go to bed but I am wired so I think I’ll read a bit and see if I can finally call it a night. Oh, one more thing - after supper we were watching a country music show and noticed that the TV sound was excellent. We could both hear the voices clearly without turning up the sound or hearing aids. Our lovely daughter did some kind of magic and everything on the TV is better. That is super good for us!

Really hot last day for youngest kiddo . . .

It’s been a good week having D for a visit. She has fixed up so much stuff on the smart TV and the old computer that we’ll be in good shape until she and G come next fall. Even with leftovers the night before last she cooked up lots of fresh veggies and  P&D’s Pop fixed up tomatoes and cukes from our Earth Grow boxes. My tomatoes are finally turning red but they are more like big cherry tomatoes then a beefsteak tomato! I’m disappointed but I’ll make a better choice next year and I shall learn how to prune the plants properly. We’re driving in to New Orleans for the Baby Cakes game this evening and then tomorrow we’ll be leaving home at about two pm to get D to the airport for about 3:30. Her flight is scheduled to depart at 5:38 with a stop in Detroit before heading overseas to Amsterdam; then it's a nine hour layover before finally taking the last flight to Tees Valley Airport about a mile from her home in the UK. When we get back from that trip to NOLA I may just take the pruning shears to the tomatoes. I doubt that I can make the plants suffer too much by cutting off what look like suckers. It’ll be too late to do much good but what the heck it’s worth a try.

We went to see the movie Solo at the Movie Tavern yesterday and it was pretty darned good especially for people who have kept up with the Star Wars saga. We also went to Big Kiddo’s home and then out for dinner at the new Walk Ons in Zachary. Wow! We were all shocked at the amount of new housing developments on the road to the restaurant. Zachary is growing much too fast. I’m quite sure they did not considered flooding when the politicians allowed the monster companies to come in and put up houses everywhere there is a open plot. I doubt there are sewer facilities to handle all of the new homes and businesses going up so they’ll have lots of engineered sewer systems with the runoff going into the drainage ditches. So backwards we are here in Louisiana. As long as the political hacks get their cut it doesn’t matter how much the waterways get befouled. I think I could learn to be a hard line environmentalist and tree hugger down here!I've never seen so much incompetence at every level of government. Connecticut is now an out migration state because the politicians keep promising free everything ; the only people paying taxes are the middle class, what’s left of it, and small businesses. Here in Louisiana the government taxes everything and then puts the money in the deep pockets of the lobbyists, politicians, lawyers and monster businesses. The little guy is with out any hope of improvement in the schools, roads, bridges, hospitals. Even tax exempt groups promising to help the poor out of their poverty take money off of the top and pocket it.

Gee how the heck did I get to this rant from what started out to be a good day! It’s easy to get distracted when all you read in the paper is about the nincompoops running government and how they get re-elected by promising free stuff to all and sundry. Oh well, we're off!

Time is running out. . .

Youngest child’s visit will be coming to an end after we go to the AAA Baby Cakes game Wednesday in New Oreans. We’ve managed to spend time together which is always good for my soul. I enjoy seeing her with P&D’s Pop - it’s as if no time has gone by and we are back to our family days in Moosup with Ma Tante, the other two kiddos, Ma, Pa and Gram. It’s amazing that she will be 40 years old in a a little over a month. Time just slips away and since we have no way to change that it’s best to accept life the way it is at this very moment. Having the youngest home feels good; I like to see her hanging out on the couch or sitting in P&D’s Pop’s chair watching TV. On this trip she has improved what we can see on the Smart TV. We were having trouble getting it to download the free Amazon movies but it is now working properly. She also set up an external hard drive for the computer so I don’t lose the important family photos and the documents that are saved on the computer itself. Amazingly I haven’t really done much cooking since she and P&D’s Pop have been taking care of supper when we don’t go out to eat! Dad does the meat and daughter cooks up the veggies - kale and all! I could definitely get used to this. She doesn’t like to clean up after cooking and I gladly do that as my part of our petite famille! Our famille is not our Moosup famille since it is Dad, Mom and one daughter but it works well. I imagine G will come with her on the next visit. He is good company; we don’t need fancy just plain being ourselves is good.

We did manage to do some clothes shopping at Cavenders one day; the next day we went to the Tanger Outlets in Gonzales where D always finds some really good buys especially on colder weather clothes since in the UK the warmest it ever gets is in the 70’s. She can come with an empty backpack and leave with a full one! I also generally find a couple of things for myself. I’m definitely not a good shopper but you can’t beat the prices at the Outlets.

We’ve eaten out at the Longhorn and Big Mike’s which has been great because our youngest has had no problem finding completely dairy free foods. She couldn’t eat the chocolate chip and snicker doodle cookies that I made for her because of the butter! It’s okay, though, because I gave some to our neighbor and he loved the plain ones and his wife like the chocolate chip cookies. 

We also went to Red Stick Spice on Jefferson in Baton Rouge and I bought myself the coolest cup to steep my tea. They have a great variety of herbal teas; I’m In the process of refining my taste. I was happy to have D with me because from Jefferson I also found Corporate Boulevard without ever going on I10. I now can get to the closest La Madeleine and an upscale Mall when I’m in the mood to be out and about on my own. Yay! I’m getting better and better at finding my way around thanks to my navigator and her smart phone. I may see if I can find a holder of some sort for my iPad so that I can use Waze while I drive and have it where I can see it. I am doubtful because my iPad is rather large. Gee, I may have to see if they have baby iPads! That might be cool as long as it can fit on the Hyundai’s dash!

PS  I almost forgot!  We also got in a craft brewery tour Saturday afternoon.  It was fun and right in Baton Rouge off of  Airline South at Southern Craft Brewing Company.  We started out with Dad and D trying out their Honey Ale called Swamp Sting.  Dad and D liked it so after the tour, it's a small place, we bought a six pack to go. They've only been in business for two years. Pretty neat operation. May have to move if they need or want to expand their sales.  Their cooler was loaded! I stuck with water!

And they're off . . .

What goes for an Eagle at South Park but is really a Mississippi Kite!

While husband and youngest big Kiddo are off to Chris' Meat Market to get some really great steaks for Memorial Day's little cookout I've just picked up around the house and ate snicker doodles, an excellent sweet orange, an egg and coffee for breakfast.  Husband and I have already spent time at the park.  We decided it was better to go even before I ate breakfast because the weather is so hot that 72 degrees is a blessing at 7am! Our youngest daughter is visiting and was up when we got home.  She had found something for breakfast after having gone to bed at 9 last night trying to get over jet lag.  She flew into New Orleans yesterday late afternoon after have left the UK at 11pm our time the night before. That's a part of flying that I don't like - I'm not good with disrupted routines!

South Park was bare of people when we got there but as P&D's Pop was into his third flight a couple of boys on bikes came flying by me as I walked.  The older one, a strawberry blond kid about 9 years old spoke with me as I strolled.  He was very interested in P&D's Pop's planes and the photos I had been taking. So we chatted, walked and rode for a bit when I asked if he'd like to talk with Mr. P. He said his Grandma had told him not to bother the man flying the control line planes but I explained to Sam that if it was okay with his Gram we could talk with my ace flyer if he'd like that. So he went off and got permission for himself and his younger brother John to bike over to the flying circle. It was good to hear the questions they had; P&D's Pop spoke to them for a while until their Gram came with her truck to pick them up with their bikes.  Poor lady was told how there is a Hobby Shop in Baton Rouge where she could buy them a plane kit to build! Oh, oh, I'm afraid we started something! I had to laugh because she had a string around her neck and there was a white square medallion shaped something hanging from it.  She explained it was a piece of soap so she could wash their mouths out if they used bad words! I found that hysterical.

Well the happy wanderers are back with the steaks so I'm off to Cavender's to shop with the youngest for a belt and then off to Rouses for groceries.

You need lots of light weight clothes or none . . .

Wow. Only going on our third year in south Louisiana and this spring has been brutal. I’m finally learning how to cope with it a little! We were at the park for seven ante meridien when it opened and I didn’t even bother to put on my hearing aids. I like to wear them so I can hear the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the squirrels up above but it’s too damn hot and sweaty walking. It was so darned uncomfortable today I didn’t even grab the camera for my second mile because it is a chore just carrying it.  Bien sûr a lovely turtle was walking along the dried out drainage channel looking for cooler and wetter surroundings; I immediately rushed back to the truck for the Z200 and scurried as fast as the heat would allow back to my original sighting. Bien sûr (redundant, I know, I know) he was nowhere to be seen. He was certainly a lot faster than I finding what he was looking for. I think I heard him plop into the water inside of a big drainage pipe. I don’t have the courage to go down and look too closely into those pipes - there must be all sorts of critters I’d rather not encounter up close.

I did manage a few blue jay photos but the sun was in the wrong place for good lighting. When we got home husband and I pretty much had to strip down and change clothes. He gets really hot flying in the sun even though it is early morning. The washing machine gets a lot of abuse.  I may have to buy a lot more shorts, tank tops, sandals and underwear just to be able to go outside and enjoy the beautiful colors and sights of south Louisiana! I may start a puzzle  like I used to do in the freezing cold of northeastern Connecticut.  Down here it's the heat and humidity that sends me scurrying inside! I'm getting there.  One day I'll have it all figured out even if I have to badger husband to play cribbage on the back porch while we drink some White Zinfandel on the rocks!

It’s been too long . . .

Perry's winning tomato in our contest to see who would have the first one.

Yes, it really has been too long since I’ve sat down to just write whatever pops into my head. I think I have hit some sort of bump in the road. I have lots of neat and interesting thoughts running through my head but they’re never there when I decide I want to work with them. I tried to do a stream of consciousness by speaking out loud and having the note book on the iPad write out what I was saying but I think I was speaking too fast and it was pretty gobbled. Of course when you do something like that you get rather nervous and wonder what the heck may come out of your mouth because you’re just trying to let the thinking flow on any topic the old brain cells decide to wander to! And they didn't wander too well!  I was waxing poetic about James's Cafe and all of the great characters we see there on our Tuesday morning breakfasts in old downtown Denham Springs. It is such a beat up old building; the restaurant is located in what used to be a drugstore. It's just one huge room with all sorts of old tables and chairs and even older people dropping in for their daily chats.  I love it. People seem to have finally gotten used to seeing us there and already know what we order.  It's the kind of place that makes me want to sit in on every conversation that's going on. The decorations change with the many different holidays that are celebrated here in Louisiana but the bulk of decorations, which are never really put away just put aside, are LSU purple and gold tigers.

I guess there really is no good excuse for me to not be working with Qu’que chose but I seem to have lost my balance and can’t get myself upright.  I get bogged down in some sort of self pity and there really is no real reason for that. I have a lot of what ifs and when I analyze them they're just foolish ideas and inadequate thoughts that pop into my head and make me unhappy. It may have to do with finally being able to get off of some of the strong blood pressure medicine and letting it work it’s way out of my system or the fact that I am now on a thirty day heart monitor and that doesn’t please me much. I’m wondering if I am just getting used by the doctors down here because I have pretty decent insurance. I’ve even been sent to a neurologist so the heart doctor can determine why I tell him that my brain is sluggish at times. The darned neurologist did all kinds tests using all the latest technology and everything is hunky dory. That is a good thing. but they will not believe me when I tell them I am still having repercussions from that open heart surgery and the powerful medicines I was on. I feel sure that getting older is also a pain in the derrière. Oh well, even if I just complain when I write it’s better then stewing about stuff with, at times, this inadequate brain! So that's enough complaining for today.