Get the Spinner . . .

Kiddo has made up a new game. He spins a propeller on a stick and it lands on the garage overhang. Then, after all that work, he gets to knock it off the roof with tennis balls, if he's lucky! The video last for 5:50 minutes. We finally quit waiting for the hit that would win the day and stopped the video. At 6 minutes, without any fanfare he made a direct hit and it tumbled down. Oh well, c'est la vie, n'est-ce pas? So if you want to see Kiddo in action you will have to fast forward through some of the video. He actually does get a hit but it pushes the spinner higher up!

Kiddo was sick at school lunch Thursday so I brought him to his house and next day he stayed with us a bit earlier than usual for a Friday as daughter didn't want to send him to school since he really couldn't eat. We had a good day reading, swinging, flying spinners and he came up with his new Get The Spinner game. The sun has not deigned to come out yet this drab Saturday and Puppy's Pop is mowing up a storm. I'm going to make some Gumbo for supper with Cajun C.J.'S home made mix that we mailed to Moosup from Slaughter. Hope I make it right. There's enough to feed an army! Kiddo's brother is in a huge funk because he's got a job at Big Y in Mystic and should have gotten his license Friday but a set of his Dad's dealer plates are on his car and the DMV wouldn't let him take the driving portion of the test. Not only that but now you have to take the driving portion before you take the written part and he couldn't get another appointment until June 3. On top of that the DMV generally makes you take the two tests on different days!! This place gets nuttier by the minute. Hope he was able to schedule both tests on the same day but that happens infrequently and he had lucked out the first time around. His step grandmother on his mother's side will most likely let him use her car for the next test and take him to the testing site. I hope he continues to drive and study.

Quote: He had the rare quality of not only loving but respecting childhood -- its innocence, its keen sense of justice, its passionate yet sensitive affections. __Mulock

Rather lucky day . . .

Here I sit at the dining room table in middle child's home in Groton and consider my self lucky because I'm sipping coffee and snacking on Goldfish. Yesterday I had to make a mad dash to Dr. Mackey, our dentist here in Groton, because it seemed I might have an abscessed molar. She checked it out, thought hopefully that it was only a cracked filling that was acting up right down to the gums, but she didn't have the time to work on it so I returned for 8 this morning and she had me out of there before 9! Hip, hip hurrah! I'm thankful that's all there was to it. So I went to Starbucks, splurged on a Mocha Latte and very berry coffee cake which I took to a beautiful park on Route 1 near Grasso Tech. After my delicious splurge I walked my two miles in the grey, windy cold on their half mile track. There were many people walking but the best part was a class of new mother's, about 12 of them, with their babies and buggies walking, running, stopping, working out all the way around the track. Pretty neat. It was Miss April, daughter's neighbor who runs the class. I did stop and say hello. They were having a grand old time. Then I decided to help out at Kiddo's school even though I don't generally do lunch duty on Wednesdays. I'll go pick him up at three and let hm stay for a half hour or so to play with the walkers that often stay and hang around on the school's playground. He gets a kick out of that. For now I'll just settle in and get caught up on my magazines.

A moody day . . .

Not really back in sync. Today is bright, cheery but windy as the devil. I should have cleaned as is my wont but had absolutely no desire. So Puppy's Pop brought me to the Warwick Barnes and Noble so I could get pepped up picking out some books. Didn't do too badly, two out the ten I was looking for were in stock! They're ruining my "fun at the book store days." I still do better at Amazon. That's a disgrace when I need an actual outing to heft, appreciate book covers, read back covers, mull things over, try new quirky books. Oh for the days of yore, pre-amazon, pre-iPad, Kindle, Nook. I figure that God is in His laugh mode. After we returned home I delivered the Geaux Tigers posters and note paper to the Killingly High main office for my friend Sue. Not at all impressed with the new building. Looks like a jail and the lady who I thought should have greeted me was out in left field in a non-descript all purpose some kind of room. I left my items with her in the hope that they make it to Sue's mailbox. Stopped for two bottles of Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon and a mocha latte on the way back down Route 12. That made my day as the beautiful woman who waited on me was a former student. I guess I do miss the kids, not the buildings and administration though. Puppy's Pop is out mowing for the second time since our return from Louisiana early Friday morning. The place looks grand. The house smells so good because I'm making beef barley soup from the frozen Easter left overs. Middle child and family came to Moosup early yesterday evening and we had a nice, calm meal at Riverview before returning here to relax while the Kiddos played basketball. The young Kiddo also managed to attack the spruce tree his Mom fell out of when she was a kid with his new sword and quicker than lightening moves. Neat kid. He also gave a thumbs up to the swing Grampa fixed for him on the Dogwood.

Quote: To most men their early home is no more than a memory of their early years. The image is never marred. There's no disappointment in memory and one's exaggerations are always on the good side. __George Eliot

Tired . . .

Views of the new John James Audubon Bridge spanning the Mississippi and her flood plains South of St. Francisville, LA. The bridge was opened early because of the very great flooding this year and the ferry could no longer run. We drove across it about 90 minutes after the grand opening on May 05, 2011. Beautiful structure. The highway leading to the main bridge is really a bridge too surrounded by water.

Must be getting older. I'm pooped and we've been home for a day and a half! Puppy's Pop has gone flying and I didn't even tag along to go for a walk. I can't believe that I just heard fairly loud thunder overhead and our sunny, warm, refreshing day is getting cloudy. I hope Grampa isn't flying if this storm hits! He has already mowed the lawn and we had Kiddo overnight so we're pretty much back in sync. It seems that our neighbor had to scare someone off of the porch Tuesday evening! She checked to make sure there were no broken windows and everything is fine but it ticks me off. Hoping it was just a nosey new neighbor. There certainly isn't much worth stealing except my rocker and Grampa Rose's desk! Oh, yeah, maybe some beer and wine too. I received my wild flower bouquet from that special man for Mother's Day. He made a nice arrangement! We've got our dinner all set for tonight; Richoni's spaghetti and meatballs. I love nice and easy!

Quote: Dreams full oft are found of real events the forms and shadows. __Joanna Baillie

Last day at home in Slaughter . . .

Beautiful morning in Louisiana and if we're lucky we'll get a chance to drive over the brand new John James Audubon Bridge across the flooding Mississippi just south of St. Francisville. Louisiana has shut down the ferry because of the flooding which is expected to peak at 47.5 feet on May 23. The levees in Baton Rouge range from 47.3 to 51 feet. The mighty Mississippi is expected to crest at levels not seen in 84 years. Human endeavors can only hope to contain Gaia when she unleashes her mighty power. Nature is not evil. It is only that humans have the hubris to believe they can keep her yoked to do their bidding. Pride does come before the fall and we puny beings are filled with pride. Yet Nature in it's power and majesty humbles us.

We spent a quiet yesterday recovering from our whirlwind stay in New Orléans. Grampa managed to visit with his friend Gil and get in some flying at the ball fields in Slaughter. Southern daughter and middle child left immediately for Texas because of a death in her family. Oldest child must get back to work today and A went in earlier than early for a meeting. He hopes to get home by noon so we can take a ride across the awesome Mississippi before we leave for the Baton Rouge airport. I'm always torn when we leave this comfortable home to go back home to Connecticut. A part of me stays here always and even though we've only been to Darlington in England twice there's a part of me that stays in England. It's a good thing that we only have three kids! I'd be in too many pieces! It is true that "Home is where the heart is." Life is good.

One day in NOLA . . .

We started out in the rain and ended in sunshine. La Nouvelle Orléans is not hard to take when you are with family who know the way and let you stay in ritzy accommodations on Saint Charles Street where the sounds of Streetcars lull you to sleep in the early morning hours. Buying a white russian; sipping as you walk past the bars, clubs, souvenir shops, smells, live girly shows, fancy hotel fronts with waiters in black ties, or dilapidated, crusty, old restaurants, head swiveling to try to take in Bourbon Street is the best way to guarantee a smile on your face. Quaint doesn't work as a descriptive word for the French Quarter. Lively, lovely, scary, loud, somber, showy, reeking, bold, disdainful, not meek or mild, beautiful, warm, gutsy, microcosm of good and evil, sinful, lusty, sleek, serene, worldly, holy, peaceful, calm, so far from perfection, enticing, NOLA, you're the one.

A Pyrrhic Victory ???

So Obama bin Ladin is dead. Excuse me, I meant Osama is dead and gone. This is a victory? A victory for whom? What will this victory entail? I'm very happy that bin Laden has gone to meet his virgins at the hands of the USA but I don't see the dangerous fanatics laying down their weapons and calling it quits. Bin Laden was just the latest harbinger of the world power grab that has eluded Muslim extremists for centuries. Hatred, treachery, dishonesty, misogyny, ignorance, stupefying rigidity, arrogance, cupidity in the Muslim world has not changed in millennia. Who could be so simple as to believe that this is a victory? It is right that he has been killed and if it should somehow lead our self serving politicians to allow the US military to do whatever is necessary to beat the muslim terrorists than it will be a victory for civilization. But if we just get the same rhetoric from Washington we will be the worse for it. Let's not tiptoe around the world. Let us strike hard and furiously with all our might and rid the world of these tenacious bastards who hold us hostage with impunity. We can't be squeamish in defending our western way of life for if we don't fight well we are doomed to lose the battle with Satan. And if Washington will not allow the military to do their job then we should pack up and come home. There is no reason to put American lives on the line in defense of political objectives and material gain. And those are my scattered thoughts on this grave matter.