Of Bluebirds, Puppies and Knockout Roses . . .

American Bluebirds

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe

American Goldfinch

Feeling a certain freedom this fine southern Louisiana morning - the Bluebirds are doing a high wire act; Puppy is lying on Matante Rose's well worn brown and yellow granny square blanket and my pink cheap Knockout Roses are blooming in their cheap plastic pot as if they were fit for the gardens of  Sisi, Queen of the Austrian Hungarian Empire in the 19th century. It's amazing how the beautiful weather on our infinitesimal half acre of God's magnificent world this clear, bright day can make you feel as if all of your desires have been fulfilled. And . . . I guess that at this particular moment in time all of my desires have been fulfilled. Since I was little I wanted to have a job, marry a good man and have children. It has been my heart's yearning to love my own family to the greatest depths love can reach. Not sure if I have accomplished this deep seated love but I keep trying for it is the sustenance of life. I believe that if you love fully the world is yours. Not sure how that translates into the whole wide political world of global politics but it brings me comfort  and allows me to not get roiled when I read the news of this insignificant place called Earth. Perhaps Earth is a way station where we learn how to enjoy our lives and do our best at all times not to trample on others whatever their persuasion. Perhaps God was mistaken when He created a flawed being in His likeness? Is He having second thoughts about having created man? Is He still trying to correct His errors? Whatever He is up to I hope there is a plan for man to be perfectible but life on this at times rude planet is certainly difficult with man in charge.

Well, enough scrambled thoughts on this beautiful day time to be off to see what else is in store. Will start out in Ventress and see what this day has in store. P&D's Pop is already flying at South Park and Puppy will have to come in the house to look out of the window instead of lounging in the sunshine on Matante's blanket.

Back from my trip with Amy - another fantastic day in the books. To top it off UCONN Women beat Temple. Yay!

Quote: Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.   ___Goldsmith

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