Denahi and Kenai

"Kenai is shy and Denahi is a troublemaker. Everybody knows that!" she says to me in that tone of voice that says she thinks I'm a little on the slow side. I suppose she has told me this many times before and I should remember this.

They are her friends; they are always with her. Sometimes as I get ready to throw myself into a reclining position on the sofa I hear her scream "Watch out. You're going to sit on Denahi!" Sometimes it's Kenai and sometimes it's both of them that I almost annihilate. She calls them lover boys. Sometimes she is engaged to one of them. I'm amused. I worry.

I hear her from the kitchen talking to them while she is watching her cartoons in the living room. She explains things to them, she argues with them and she takes care of them. When something goes awry, it's not uncommon for her to blame that error on them. Friendship only goes so far I suppose. If you can dump your mistakes on your friends and they can't defend themselves, well then, so much the better.

Just today she was ready to go home to see her mom. She wanted someone to drive her there. We suggested Kenai drive her. She responded with "Well, you know he's not REAL!"

That answers one of the questions that had been haunting me of late. Was this healthy for her to have these two playmates? When she admitted they weren't real, I knew I had nothing to worry about. She has a healthy imagination. She is not hallucinating. She recognizes real from unreal and I can breathe easier now. I won't confront her with the reality.

Carrie Returns and The Pain Continues

Carrie spent the night with her dad. As soon as she returns to my house we have a nice warm bubble bath and shampoo her hair. Her dad doesn't do the bathing or shampooing when she stays with him. She is past due when she gets back to me so that's our first order of business. Freshened up and dressed, she spent the remainder of the afternoon with her Poppy. They caught a ladybug and she has been entertaining herself with it. Right now it's in a jar with a lid. She is adamant about filling the jar with water so the ladybug has something to drink. We tried to explain to her the concept of drowning the ladybug with too much water. I don't think she gets it. We may find the ladybug adapting the toilet bowl for her own private swimming pool.

I've waited all day on the rain that was promised. In lieu of it raining, I watered the flowers this morning. Usually if I give them a good drenching the rains will follow. That's just how it works around here. Much like when you wash your car, get it all spotless only to have storm clouds swoop in to ruin all the cleaning effort expended.

The yellow flowers in the front flower beds had to be pulled up and bagged up for collection. They were starting to have that deadened leaves, droopy syndrome that usually signals the end of August and right on time that's what they did. I count this as a good sign; another signal that fall will be here soon. The end of another summer and another hurricane season (knock on wood). No hurricanes. How lucky are we? I'm not going to gloat too much right now. There is still a possibility that we will still get one.

The fascia tendinitis is still flaring. I talked with my aunt who had the same thing. She is cured. Rehab did it for her. She had to do the stretches in rehab and she says there is no pain now.

Guess what? I started the stretches tonight. I'm using a two step stool and standing on one of the steps and dropping my heel down as far as it will go. I can feel the stretch. It seems that for the past year a stretch of something has been prescribed to fix everything that is wrong with me. I'll do this for the next two weeks and for a couple of times a day. An update will be forth coming on the results.

I'm outta here to get Carrie into her pj's and ready for bed.

District nein!

Friday was a day without another human being in this house but moi. Ah, a me day. A day to do exactly what I wanted to do so I quickly dressed and headed out to do a little shopping. I intended to get some errands done and then go to a movie.

I think I've mentioned before I'm not a movie person. I seldom go because I seldom think about going to a movie when I have time on my hands. Yesterday was a rainy Friday. A good day to sit in a theatre and that's what I decided to do.

I went to see District 9. I thought it would be sorta like seeing Independence Day or Men in Black or even the old movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". I enjoyed these movies; District 9 was not a movie to be likened to these movies.

I sat through an hour of it and then packed up, picked up and headed for my car. I debated sitting through more of it and maybe I should have but if the first hour of a movie was leaving me wishing I hadn't attended, then I figure it was time for me to leave. I came home and Googled some reviews on it. I knew it was rated highly among the critics which was initially why I chose that movie to see. The reviews I googled after the one hour viewing I had just went through talked about the message of the movie. Maybe I should have stayed. I feel that if there was a message, the film should have made the first hour of viewing more entertaining. I left. I'll catch the last part of it when it comes out on DVD. I'll do that just to satisfy myself that I didn't miss much by leaving.

I've struck out twice on movies this month. The one Carrie and I sat through left both of us bored to tears. I may have over done my movie viewing for the entire year.

Gator Nightmares

He just looks evil doesn't he? We drove through the swamp again today and our buddy was still hanging out close to the road. He is in the same place we saw him yesterday. I sometimes travel this road late at night. It's a gravel road with the swamp on one side and a deep ditch on the other with an occasional hunting cabin set far back off the road. When driving through here at night my imagination runs wild on me. I have images of my car breaking down and the only way out is to get out of the car and walk. Would I walk? I don't think so. The thought of a big gator lying in wait beside the road or crawling right down the center of the road and unable to be seen by anyone walking down that road gives me shivers and justifies my decision to not get out. I would just have to wait until a serial killer or someone a bit more on the emphatic side happened by. Cell phone you say? I didn't mention that cell phone reception by the swamp is nonexistent? Well, there you have it. No phone and a car that won't run, no street lights and gators crawling through the night down the middle of the road; what's a girl to do? Scream intermittently and huddle inside the car that won't run. Yep, that's my cowardly means of survival.

We slowed down and took the above pictures and then continued on our drive to Peg's and her pool. By the time we got there Carrie had convinced herself there were alligators in Peg's pool. She pointed out some dark objects in the bottom of the pool and Peg had to explain to her that it was just dirt stuff that needed to be vacuumed out. We got in the pool to show her that we weren't attacked; we still had our arms and legs.

The water was cold. I didn't expect it. The temps have been dropping down into the '60's this past week; the pool cools down too. Pool season may not last through September this year. This is the coolest August we've had here or at least the coolest I can remember. It's usually unbearably hot and doesn't change much when the sun sets. Right now we can have coffee on the patio in the morning and enjoy the 71 degree temps. Now that's unusual; enjoyable but unusual.

We left the pool at 2PM and made a McDonald's' stop for Carrie and then headed home. She was collected by her mother shortly after we got back and now I have the house all to myself. A nap is in order. I know it's late and almost too late for a nap but I'm here by myself so I can do that if I want and I think I want!

Night now.

Swamp Food

This big boy was right beside the road but still in the swamp. He kept creeping up on the people standing on the road. I kept my distance. I could just imagine him getting his feet on solid ground and making a dash for people food. I've heard we taste like chicken.

We decided to take a ride to the swamps today with Carrie. We asked if she wanted to see the alligators and of course she was all excited about this so we changed into running shoes in case we need to make a fast get away and off we went.

Carrie rode along in the back seat until we got to the swamp then we put her on the console between the front seats so she would have a clear view. As we crept along in the truck we heard a meow, then another and then we stopped to look for the kitty. Yep, that darn kitty had crawled up into the engine compartment and luck was with the silly kitty. She wasn't ground up in the fan of the truck. We popped the hood and she was crouched by the steering column and safe but complaining loudly. I wasn't going to try to touch her. She doesn't appear to have been handled by humans and I didn't want to get striated with little claws.

She leaped from her hiding spot to the ground and immediately headed to the swamp. She dashed through the water and onto a stump and there we left her. Yes, we left her. Neither one of us wanted to try to catch her. This is not what we planned for the kitty. Although I didn't want to take her into my house, I would have fed her and let her hang out but not inside. The problem solved itself but not by any planning on our part.

I'm hoping she doesn't become alligator food; I don't know what she will do for food unless she finds mice in the swamp. I'll worry about her for a while. Poor little kitty. She should have stayed beneath the car where her milk bowl still sits!

27 Weeks

Has it really been 27 weeks since my TKR? Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it has been that long. The incision site looks marvelous. Oh, you might have a different opinion of my views on that but to me it's all about function at this stage of my life. Maybe my right knee won't win a beauty contest but it's functional and that's all that matters. I still have problems with a limp; I still have to do all the stretch exercises and I wish it had more flexion to it and maybe someday that will happen. If it flexes beyond where it is right now due to someone bumping into it or me forcing it accidentally when getting in and out of the car, I feel a surge of pain. This is not pleasant nor welcomed. It might be something I will have to learn to live with.

I'm posted a photo on Monday. It's been a while since I did a blog about the TKR and longer still since I posted a picture of the ugly knee. This post was started in a document program and I just realized I had forgotten about it when post time came this past Monday. Oh well. Better late then never. I'll post so I can remove it from the document file.

My sister will go in for her knee replacement soon. I don't envy her or anyone else that has to start this process. I'm sure she will be just fine and grateful a year from now that she had it done. Of course she may not feel that for a year and I hope she has the patience to deal with it.

She can get rather testy at times. Take a few breaths sis. Relax. You'll get there.

I'm Being Followed!

When nap time arrives for Carrie, she is not sent to the bedroom for a nap rather she is escorted into bed along with the nap sender which in this case would be me. We both have to climb into bed and turn off the lights and snuggle down for a nap. Usually she drifts off quickly but only after she views one cartoon. That's our deal. She gets to watch one cartoon show on the TV then it's lights out and it's time for that nap.

I wait until I hear her even breathing and I slide out of bed for a 2 hr. break from Carrie while she naps. Carrie has figured out my routine. She knows I'm going to sneak off after she falls asleep so she has her own means of monitoring me. She splays her legs over my body or drapes an arm across me. She thinks this will alert her to my sneakiness.
We play this game each afternoon nap time and at bedtime. Usually I can slip away without arousing her. Unfortunately that only lasts for 10 minutes and then I find she has trailed me to the living room sofa half asleep and rubbing her eyes while admonishing me for leaving her. Back to bed we go and we repeat this process a few more times unless I just give up and stay in bed and try to go back to sleep. Last night was no exception to this game. We did this at least 3 times. I finally gathered her up on the last trip to the living room and we went to bed and stayed there.

I don't know how this "sleeping with Carrie" got started but I suspect her mother made it a point of laying down with her for her naps as daughter never passes up an opportunity to stay in bed. She doesn't sneak out for some down time; she stays and enjoys a nap along with her daughter. I've inherited this process when Carrie spends the day and night.

I have to say at this time, I do enjoy watching her sleep. That only lasts for a few minutes then I'm ready to sneak away.

Here Kitty, Kitty

Watching the kitty beneath the car sipping milk from the bowl.

She didn't just cry. She wailed. She wailed long and painful sounding. Was it because she was hungry? Hiding in the shrubbery she cried out pitifully. It didn't sound like a cry of pain unless it was pain from an empty belly. She pushed her head out from the bushes, peaked around and quickly drew back into hiding.

We retreated back to the end of the driveway to give her some space. I say "her" but the kitty could just as easily be a male.Gender isn't important right now.

Soon she stepped out of the bushes and crept toward the house crying all the while. A small frail golden/orange colored kitty disappeared beneath the car. She moved from her hiding place in the bushes to a hiding place beneath the car. No amount of coaxing would convince her to come out.

We slipped a pink bowl filled to the halfway mark with milk. Maybe the kitty would find the bowl if we slipped into the house to wait and give her the space to come and explore.

We put a two step stool in front of the door so Carrie could climb up and peek out the window. She watched for a while. Soon she would grow tired of the waiting and slip down off the step stool to only reclimb those two steps to watch again for a while.

After a while we went back outside to find the kitty. We could hear her still crying. The milk was left undisturbed. Nothing to do now but go back inside and wait again.

NatGeo was showing a documentary on Florence, Italy. We watched TV and occasionally listened for the sound of the kitty; Carrie was encouraged to climb her little ladder and peek out to check the contents of the milk bowl. No kitty yet. We will continue watching till bedtime. Tomorrow we will check the pink bowl and hope it will be found empty and the kitty's belly will be full for a while.

Carrie and her Poppy went back outside to coax the kitty and the pictures above showed their success! The kitty is beneath the car drinking her milk and now she has a plate with some roast beef on it just in case the milk wasn't enough food for her.

Carrie is having the best time sitting and watching the kitty. She started saying she wished we could keep it and to this we told her if it came to the door and knocked she could keep the kitty.

We assume that will keep us safe. Surely that kitty can't knock!

A Drug Overdose?

Surprise, surprise? I've been watching and listening to the latest news on MJ. Should that doctor be charged with manslaughter or just malpractice? MJ, in my opinion, lasted longer then I thought he would. I'm sure his family and friends and fans expected him to overdose sooner then he did.

I do realize the doctor gave him all these drugs but then why else would you have a doctor living in your home 24/7? AEG, I think is the production company that hired that doctor to be with him. I'll bet it was to ensure he didn't off himself before the concert dates had been satisfied. They knew MJ would be doing drugs; why not have a doctor on site to make sure he didn't OD. Unfortunately it didn't work. He didn't do his job. All those concert dates had to be cancelled. I'll bet they were pissed off at that doctor. I'm surprised they don't sue him for not keeping MJ alive long enough to do those concert dates. After that, would they have really cared?

Husband went for his doctor's appointment this morning and came home with a slew of tests ordered for this week. When the doctor asked him when the last time he visited a doctor and he told him 30 yrs ago, needless to say the doctor paused and looked at him. Husband shrugged his shoulders and said he had no reason to go.
The tests ordered are just for a baseline. An upper GI was ordered because of the acid reflux he has but that is the only problem he has with his health. Lucky him!

Carrie just arrived to spend the day and night; it's time to go do some child things.
Previcid was ordered and the price was staggering. 150.00 for a months' supply! YEOW!

It's An Ugly Knee Monday!

I'm doing a clinical update today. It's been a while. I have almost full extension now. No pain in the knee at all but the heel is still sore and painful when I first stand up to walk. It doesn't hurt at all until I stand but after walking for about 5 minutes the pain in the heel area ceases. I'm going to work on flexion and hope that I can get more flexion then what I currently have which is about 110 degrees.

When I woke this morning and stepped outside I was pleasantly surprised at the cool temperatures. For us it was cool. Certainly not jeans and jacket weather but no stifling heat and humidity and there was hint of fall in the air. I know this won't last long and the heat and humidity will return but it was enjoyable if only for this day.

I have some house work stuff to get done today; the rest of the day is up for options.

My one goal today was to get a family physician. I've been in this town for 18yrs and still don't have a family doctor. The last one I contacted wasn't accepting new patients but this weekend I got a name from my neighbor of a doctor she likes and is hopefully taking new patients. I called and was able to get an appointment for hubby for tomorrow morning! How great is that? I took the appointment date for him because we never know when he will be called out on a job and not be able to make a doctor's appointment.

That's my story for today; nothing exciting but a record none the less of Aug. 23, 2009!

For the Record

We'll Talk About This Later

I'll have to get over this; put it behind me. I'll have to get accustomed to seeing her look like a big girl, a young lady because that's the way she looks to me with this haircut. This is her own haircut. She did this with a pair of scissors found in toy kits for children. It was tough hacking away at that hair but she got it done. She pulled the hair from the back over her face to get to it

This is after the hair dresser worked her magic on applying a hairstyle post hacking of the hair.

And that's all I have to say about anything this day. I'm creeping off to browse through the albums at the way it was!

Escape from The Cabin

I got up, dressed and showered! I had a plan. I planned on escaping this cabin or a while today. I'm still looking at printers and decided to go to Best Buy to look at Canon Pixmas. It was a day that didn't require the a/c in the car to be tuned to full blast cold. It has been raining here and the temps have dropped drastically. It was actually comfortable to be outside.

The walk. I have to comment on the walk. I could. I mean, I could walk without ANY discomfort! No limp, no soreness of the muscles and my heel delivered no pain. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I don't remember the last time I had a pain free walk. I'm hoping someday this becomes the norm for me.No limp and no pain. What else could one ask for?

My trip to Best Buy was a bust. Their selection of Canon printers was just pitiful. They had nothing I was even remotely interested in. I'll keep searching.

I'm not much of a shopper so after one store I was ready to go home. My nap time must have been approaching but I stopped by the grocery store anyway. Pork chops, ground chuck and chicken breasts later I arrived home. I have an onVEE as the Cajuns here say, for some chicken salad. Tomorrow I'll boil those chicken breasts with some seasonings and then cool it, shred it and make the chicken salad. Sandwiches this weekend or just eating it on crackers will be my treat. A nice cold food for an August day.
I've done a little photo editing this afternoon; I didn't finish the editing but I did print the pictures from the past 3 months and update the family album. I don't like to get very far behind on that chore. I'm obsessive about getting the pictures for that album.
Some game is on; hubby made some snacks and headed for the tv on the patio to watch the game. He can kick back, have his snacks and his cigarette out there. For some reason, smoking in the house almost nauseates me but when someone smokes in my car when riding around with me, that doesn't bother me at all. I find that extremely strange.

I'm sneaking out of here to the king size bed; I can lay diagonal in it if I want. No one will be in it but me! I'll have to share it later but for now it's all mine. Mine! I say!

August Relief

Some relief from the heat is happening around here as we speak. The clouds have decided to camp overhead and block some of the sun's rays and it's almost tolerable to walk outside. Oh I'm not discounting the humidity that comes along with the rain those clouds have been dumping on us but humidity without heat is one less nasty weather condition to endure.





This month is nearing an end. This whole summer has just whizzed right by. I know I complained of the heat a lot but it still doesn't seem possible that we are nearing the end of this month and school has been in session for the past two weeks.





Maybe it's age? Maybe the older we get the faster the time slips away until we find we are too old for everything. Oh my! I must not continue with the vein of thought or I will be too depressed about time slipeage to enjoy the fall weather that is fast approaching. We have a very short fall season here. It's usually hotterNhell or winter time. Winter mild as it is can get uncomfortable too; a damp cold is what we enjoy. I really don't mind. Adding a sweater or a sweatshirt to go outside is my kind of winter.

Bill O'Reilly, You Jerk!

I visit a web site where a blog is posted by a young lady that is an American living in Germany. Mostly her blog is about her family with a touch of cooking the local dishes. Lately she has become concerned about public opinion of the health care currently being debated in the USA. Related to that, she has started publishing real life experiences with Germany's Health Care that is state funded. Below is a link from one of her readers on her experiences with Germany's insurance for it's people:
http://www.amiexpat.com/2009/08/20/more-real-experiences-with-the-german-health-care-systems/

There are other pages in her blog about health care and her own views and observations. Check it out!

Canon, You've died and I miss You!

She was just a gem. What else can I say about her? When called upon she always delivered and in colors that were vivid and clear. She delivered multiples at the touch of a button and singles were just as easy a task for her to do quickly and again at the touch of that same button.

Speed? She was a demon. A few whirls and delivery was in her trays. I couldn't have asked for a better companion these past few years. Sadly she is gone. I had just added fresh ink to her and before even using 1/2 a tank she expired. It was quick and painless. One minute she was humming and the next minute she was dead. No lingering around and delivering shoddy work. If she couldn't produce perfection she must have felt it was time to bow out quickly.

Today after many attempts to revive her short of mouth to mouth resuscitation, I packed away her cables and pushed her to the side. I went to the big box store and browsed for a replacement for her.

A Epson multiple duty fax, printer and scanner was selected. I tried really hard to accept this replacement. I wanted to give it a chance to replace my beloved Canon but immediately we had a huge problem. It, um..sorry..the Epson wasn't compatible with the program I had always used to select and deliver the prints to my old Canon. I simply could not believe I couldn't use that program. I did some investigation. That program was part of my old Canon's system. Ah ha! I see the problem and I'm not happy. This is surmountable. I'll just check out the photo program that came with Mr. Epson. It may be a while before I can be comfortable enough with Mr. Epson so that I don't have to address him so formally.

Oh but, there is no photo program with Epson ole boy. You are instructed to use the Windows Photo program and alas it's a very shoddy one. It cannot select multiple pictures to be printed. It's one at a time selection is not going to be acceptable.
I'm trying my photo editors now. I tried Photoshop Elements but there was no help there. I'm almost through all my editing programs for pictures and none of them compare to Easy Photo Print by Canon. I just can't live this way. I'm packing Mr. Epson back into his box and taking him back to the big box store. We are never going to be compatible and I accept this.

Tomorrow I will go out again and look for another replacement. I'm eying the Canon 3600. It's a stand alone photo printer and a relative of the one I lost so recently. Maybe I need to keep this all in the same family. Stay tuned. I'll have more to report and I can only hope there will be no drama to report. I've had enough drama for one day.

Eat at The Dragon

I think I picked the wrong movie for Carrie and I to watch at the theatre yesterday. I should say "film". It sounds so much more chic to use the word "film". Speaking of, doesn't it just irritate the hell out of you to hear someone who obviously enjoys projecting an elite persona when you know damn well where they came from? Affectations. I don't know whether to snicker or call them on it. I know people that you would swear they had been born and grown up and educated abroad. I'm seen them use the word "loo" when talking about the bathroom, pissed when talking about being drunk and the list goes on and on. How did they grow so European? Too many movies maybe?

Oh..and that's what I was talking about when I started this blog. A movie or a damn "film" if you prefer. So, saying with little finger crooked while drinking my cuppa tea, I selected the wrong film times two for Carrie and I yesterday. G-Force was touted as an animated film. How could I go wrong with this one? We got to the theatre and bought our tickets along with a small popcorn that cost over 3.00. I had stashed a can of cold Coke with a straw in my purse or I would have paid 3.25 for a damn SMALL coke! There oughta be a law against that kind of piracy but that's a whole nuther post for a whole nuther day.

Carrie and I slip into the theatre seats and we barely made it in time to not miss any of the FILM. (see me being pretentious?)

Anyway, it wasn't really what I would call an animated film. The mice and the other rodents weren't drawn in the sense that I think of animation. They weren't real either. The plot surrounded espionage which Carrie I'm sure wasn't interested in at all. There was no princess to rescue and no loud catchy tune to listen to so it didn't hold her interest at all. After a few minutes we slipped out of that theatre and walked to the one next door and sat through that one. She was a bit more interested in that one but I think we were both more excited about exiting the theatre then when we entered it with high expectations for the film (MOVIE) we thought we were going to see.

Our next stop? Do you think it would be Burger King or McDonalds for a cheeseburger or some chicken nuggets? Oh but NO. Carrie wanted to go to The Dragon place to eat. I had no clue where she meant. I didn't know of a dragon restaurant. I questioned her. She described where it was and when she had ate there. AHHHHHHHHH...The Royal Panda! I should have known. My little Cajun girl wanted shrimp. No burgers for her. She's born and raised in fresh seafood country. Crawfish, shrimp and catfish are some of her favorite foods which are plentiful and cheap here.

We had lunch at the dragon restaurant and came home for a nap. Personally this was my favorite time of the whole day!

Matinee

I stepped outside this morning with intentions of watering the flowers and getting right back inside. I did just that but when I returned to the inside of the house after spending only 20 minutes outside, my hair was dripping with sweat and my clothes were the same. E GODS...it's nasty here. Hot and humid and just awful.

Carrie and I were going to spend the day at the pool but it is being shocked so our plans have changed. We are going to see a movie in about an hour and spend some time in a dark theatre; a dark cool theatre.

Carrie is putting on her makeup right now. I couldn't talk her out of it although I did try. I'm wondering if I dare take her out in public when she is finished. To Carrie's way of thinking "more" is much better when she is doing her makeup. She hasn't developed all her fine motor skills yet so that eye shadow brush sometimes becomes unmanageable and skitters away from her eyelids and real close to her ears. You can imagine what her lipstick looks like!
Anyway, I'll see if she will let me touch it up a bit for her before we leave. If
she wants to wear it "as is" then that's what it will be.
(She just came in here to show off her makeup and will wonders never cease? It actually looks showable.)
I'm outta here for a few hours to entertain the little one. I shall return.

Connected

Another pool day until about 1PM then the thunder rumbled beneath the dark clouds that had rolled in and were hanging over the pool. Before the first fat raindrops peppered the scorched concrete surrounding the pool, I was out and wrapped in a towel and headed for the cover of the cabana.

The rain came in wind driven sheets; fierce and without letup for about 15 minutes. Pools of water gathered in the yard and around the cars parked in the driveway. Unfortunately it also gathered on the front seat of my little Toyota. I had left the window partially down to let the hot air escape while parked in the hot sun and I forgot about it when the rain swooped in. I'll have a wet bottom for the next few days until it drys out.

I'm watching the storms scattered throughout the Gulf and the Atlantic. Right now we have tropical storms but any of them could pick up enough speed to be classed as a hurricane. I'm watching and waiting.

Carrie and Ted arrived this evening. Their mom had to work so I get to have them for an overnight visit. We settled in to our usual routine.


I remember evenings at home when I was a child. All of us and there were seven total sat around the kitchen table with "pick up sticks" or "jacks" or a deck of cards. We played quietly or at least without argument. An argument resulted in the game being "called" by dad who believed if you had to argue about it then it wasn't much of a game. We knew to be polite.



This evening I look around at the family. Carrie is here along with her brother Ted. Ted is sixteen years old and Carrie is almost a 4yr. old. Carrie is sitting in the living room with the laptop pulled up close to her while she plays her games on Noggin.com. The big screen TV in front of her is on the Noggin channel and she is watching Dora when she isn't hitting the keyboard on the laptop. Meanwhile Ted is in the office on the desktop computer either playing a game or getting cheat codes for his X Box.

Me? Well, I'm no better then the rest of them. I'm in the bedroom with the big screen in there tuned to a favorite show of my own and the bedroom laptop is balanced across my rib cage while I lie in a supine position with my foot on a heating pad. Would you say this family was connected or disconnected?



Dinner? Carrie sat in her high chair in front of the TV in the living room and ate mini Raviolis and some banana sausages (that's Vienna sausages to the rest of the world) while Ted had some pork chops that were batch fried a few days ago and stored in the fridge for his return. Ted doesn't much care for an entree and vegetables. He is happy to have a pork chop or two or his other favorite is scrambled eggs, bacon and no toast. I had a bowl of Cheerios. Not one of us ate together. Again we may be not connected?



Right now I have to turn this laptop back to Carrie; I have to go to my room to watch my TV while Carrie stays here in the living room with her cartoon shows. And so it goes. I'm afraid if I set some rules on getting some togetherness going, I would have children gazing at me incredulously and trying to fathom why I would want to change anything. This is the norm for them as pick up sticks and jacks were the norm for my family. Too much progress may not always be a good thing.

It's Only Rock and Roll

I went to Peg's and just hung out. By the time I worked on her computer, then went to visit a cousin of hers that had a TKR a few months after I had mine there was no pool time available unless I wanted to stay till after 3PM which I didn't. I got home and showered, something I could do 3 times a day in this heat, and crashed on the sofa for some news updates.

Missing children, mother driving wrong way on interstate and Michael Jackson's unburied body along with health care debates and that about sums up the news. Later I watched part of the Woodstock 40 documentary. I always look for my friend Therese when the cameras scan the crowds. She was there and I'm sure she was a lot loaded and had a blast! I wasn't there but I sure remember rocking out to a lot of the musicians that played that concert. Ah, the good ole days of rock and roll before the musicians decided they had to gain attention by light shows and costumes.

I shall be back later today. Right now before the temps spike, I want to get outdoors.

ReeeeeeeeeeeeLax

Yesterday I was kid free. I spent most of the day in Peg's pool and that was a kid free zone also. I wrapped one of those snake like foam thingies behind my head and held each end of it in each hand and leaned back into it and just floated around in the pool undisturbed for the day. Not one child had to go pee or get a drink or any damn thing else. The water was comfortable, bright blue and clear. Occasionally I would float to the deep end and let my body go perpendicular in the water and then stretch my leg to exercise it. All in all it was a nice relaxing day and I got out of the house for a while even though it's August and not my favorite month to spend any time outdoors.

Now after all that said about a kid free day, I still miss Carrie. I am going to take advantage of her being gone and do some shopping. She does well when I take her shopping but I don't spend much time actually in the stores as I know it's not a favorite thing of any child to be caged in a shopping cart while mom/grandmother browses the aisles.

That was my exciting day. Sometimes not having an exciting day is what is needed most don't you think?

Bitch Fest #2

Here I am up at 6AM. Ted spent the night and sometimes as a treat, I'll take him to Burger King for his special breakfast of a Double Egg and Sausage sandwich. I've done this for years when he has spent the night. I then took him to a house a few blocks away so he could catch a ride with a friend to school. I remember not so long ago sitting at his bus stop in the dark in my car because he was such a little guy and I didn't want him standing beside the highway waiting on the bus and available to any pervert cruising the streets in search of little boys.

Carrie didn't spend the night and for that I'm grateful. I think everything on me hurts when I first stand up. My back isn't "out" but it is strained and it hurts now when I first stand up. I'm tellin ya, I'm fallin apart here. When it isn't depressing, it just pisses me off! I don't know which feeling is worse. The being depressed or the being pissed off. I could have said it makes me angry, but pissed off just expresses it better!

And while I'm in bitch mode, my printer either died on me or became unplugged. I'm going to have to pull out the CPU from the cave where it lives and turn into a contortionist to get behind it and check the printer cable. I really hope this printer hasn't died as I found a heck of a deal on printer ink and of course I ordered a ton of it and of course I didn't think that my ages old printer might die and I would be stuck with all this ink.
I print a lot of pictures for the albums I maintain for the kids so I use a lot of ink. I must get this printer to print until I can use all the ink I have here and that will prevent me from having a big crying jag at the waste of all that money on that ink.

I'm outta here to get another cup of coffee, get dressed and see how exciting my day will be (sarcasm). I did buy some new curtains yesterday but to hang them I'll have to remove the rod that is now up and replace it with a new rod. Am I up for that? Maybe. (Knowing I'm not really going to tackle that on my own today).
Buy.......bye

Primp and Paint

I'm done. I'm just so done! I know there are hotter places on earth this time of year and anywhere in Arizona would attest to this but I'm hot here anyway! I got into my air conditioned car and drove to the air conditioned store with my little sidekick Carrie. Just leaving the car to walk into the store had me wondering what the hell I thought I needed bad enough to venture forth in this weather. The thermometer said it was 95 degrees. I smacked it a couple of times to see if it would register higher. It didn't so it must be the humidity that is causing all this misery. It's even too hot to go swimming. The pools must be like being in a bowl of hot soup. All I have to say is August can't last forever. I know this is our worst month. This too will pass.

I left the store and put Carrie back in her car seat. She was squealing for me to turn on the air. I had the air on; I turned the vent so she could feel some of the cool air flow over her as it was going to take a while for all that hot air in the car to be cooled. I wanted to whine but I knew it was not going to help at all and it would just give Carrie an excuse to whine more.

Back home we settled in front of the TV and with her new makeup kit we had purchased on this trip, she busied herself painting her face. My face was her next project. I looked quite fancy with all that eyeshadow and lipstick that over ran the edges of my lips; I could have applied at any circus for a job.We don't go out of the house after these makeup sessions. We just hang around the house with our beautiful faces covered in paint. Carrie thinks we look gorgeous and I don't offer my opinion on how we look. She is happy and that makes me happy. Occasionally I will grab my camera and get a few shots of her in all her painted glory. I know she will enjoy looking at these pictures in a few short years.

She went home this evening to spend some time with her mother. I washed my face after she left and went to get a haircut and hurried back home to enjoy some quiet time. I had to promise Carrie she could come visit tomorrow and we might try going to the pool at Peg's house. She whimpered a little but she left with her mom.

I have some news programs to use to catch up on what has been happening in the world today and that is what I plan on doing the remainder of this day!

Sunday at The Casino

It's early but at least it's after 7AM and I'm doing my daily computer stuff like checking my mail and a few other computer things that make up my morning rituals.

We decided to get out of the house yesterday and go to the Casino for a while. At least it's nice and cool in the casinos and there are lots of people watching opportunities. It is about an hour's drive from here and after the first 3o minutes the storm clouds rolled in big, black and puffy and dropped rain so heavy the traffic was pulling to the side of the interstate and waiting it out. We just slowed down a little and kept going. We got a good drenching, the humidity raced higher and we thanked the air conditioner gods for the convenience of flipping that a/c switch onto a higher level.

At the casino a 30 something young lady was strolling along with her arm looped around her boyfriends' arm and from a distance they looked as though they were just moving from one area of the casino to another. When her arm slipped off his, she staggered a few feet to the side, paused and then put one foot very deliberately in front of the other and moved forward a few steps before she staggered a few feet to the opposite side which then put her back on course with her boyfriend who was waiting on her to return to his side. She couldn't make it without his help so he stepped back a few paces so she could lock her arm back onto his. Ah, the joys of free drinks while gambling. The casinos are not so free with the drinks of late so either this couple were buying some of their own or they had been there for hours and hours.

Hubby plays blackjack and he reported that everyone sitting at the table with him had been laid off just last week. One worked for UPS, one a truck driver, one a secretary at a realtor's office and if he mentioned anyone else, I can't remember at this moment. All of these people were Texans and most of them lived in Houston. One man mentioned that his whole family used to work in the oil industry but he decided to not do that anymore. He still ended up loosing his job. He commented that though Houston is a huge city and diversified, it is still a city based on the oil industry and the recession in the oil fields is once again impacting Houston.

I try not to dwell on the economy. It doesn't help and as I'm a chronic worrier in the best of times, this is a difficult thing for me not to do...worry.

That said, the job recovery is expected to be the last indicator that the economy is healing. Job losses are expected throughout the next two years; this I hear from the news reports.

One can't just stop living and wait for the ax to fall. I feel as though that is how I have been living for the past year. Although we aren't nearly as busy as last year, we still have an income most people didn't have in the best of times so I need to lighten up a bit and damper down the worry.

I'm outta here to get showered and dressed and see what the day brings. Maybe I will get inspired to do something. This could happen. Wipe that disbelieving look off your face!

Weather Hot and Humid

I only thought I wanted to leave the house for a while yesterday. I left. I also returned quickly. It's so darn hot here that the quick trip to the grocery store and lunch at a new restaurant was enough for me.

We quickly returned home and spent the afternoon hiding out from the heat and humidity. I plan on doing more of the same thing today.

I didn't do any "house things" yesterday so today it's floors and laundry. It's indoor chores and that is fine with me. My main goal is to stay cool.



I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the hurricanes don't develop this year. I'm just not looking forward to a hurricane; the mess and the power outages. August and September is usually the months we can count on to produce a storm or two and we have arrived.

Tiki Tubing Thursday

It's almost 6AM here and the coffee aroma seeping into the office makes me want to jump up and pour a cup. To do this I'll have to not walk briskly nor without a bit of discomfort and that's what I will do to get a cup of brew. The pain in my foot has decreased somewhat dramatically although not to diminish the fact that it is still there and bothersome. For the plantar inflammation the remedy is to rest the foot and give the inflammation time to resolve while the remedy for the knee replacement is to exercise and do a lot of walking. I'm conflicted here. More patience and waiting for both to heal. I still went Tikki Tubing though.

This past Thursday my daughter and her children did one last summer trip before school starts next week. A few miles north(I think it's north) of Baton Rouge is the small town of Denham Springs, home of the Tiki Tubing experience. You rent tubes, climb aboard a bus and get bussed upriver to a spot where you launch yourself and tube into the river. Some of the floatation devices are just inter tube shaped, some resemble love seats without the arms and two or more can float on these. Pinks, green, reds and yellows bobbing and swirling down the river make for a kaleidoscope of color. The colors make it look fun!

In some spots your tube will bounce along on the bottom of the river and in some spots the water is chest deep. The river flows slowly; at times I had to check the trees along the river to determine if we were moving at all. Carrie spent most of her time on the raft I was on. Mine resembled a huge love seat minus the arms. The pictures of the float devices can be seen here http://www.tikitubing.com/. The sun is blazing down and a breeze is nonexistent and about 30 minutes into this brainy idea, I was wondering at the wisdom of my decision to be involved in this. About 2 hrs into this, I was not so kind to myself about making the decision to go along on this excusion. For the first hour the sun was relentless. There is no respite from the sun. I was worried that Carrie and I would end up with a sunburn worst then the one we acquired at the beach.

I shouldn't have worried. Within an hour the sun had faded away, huge clouds drifted overhead and the cold rain started pelting us ungently if that is a word. The rain would scale back it's attack, thunder rumbled in the distance and I'm now scanning the sky for lightening. My T shirt tied to the raft was soaked. I used it anyway. I untied it, wrung the water out and draped it across Carrie to protect her against the rain ladden wind.

Only twice did I dump us into the river. Carrie got a little hysterical when this happened. I would have to drag the float device to the shore and heave her back onto it, get myself back on and then use my legs to pole us back into the current. Occasionally she would be assisted off the raft to swim but only when tree trunks and roots were not noticeable. Oh, did I forget to mention the trees, roots and debris? Some areas were clear but you had to be alert to steer your tube or raft clear of the huge trees and trunks protruding out of and across the river. I only had my flip flops as oars. That helped a little but more times then not we would end up floating into the debris and have to use our legs and arms to push us backwards off the spiky trunks and branches to get moving again.

As a watcher of people, I made note of the fact about 30 minutes into this float, that most of the floaters were between the ages of 16 and early 20's. The only people on the river above those ages were myself, daughter and two other women. Carrie took the honors for being the youngest.

Coolers were floated alongside the tubes in these handy little devices that hooked around the coolers that were made of Styrofoam. The coolers were filled with beer and the owners of these coolers were smashed by the time the 4 hr. journey ended. The young girls flirted, laughed and sometimes became amorous with the young men. The river reeked with youthful hormones and beer and I'm sure everyone of them will remember what a fun day they had tubing that river.

It's at times like these when you realize that some things were best done at a certain age and there should have been an age restriction placed on this activity for our own protection since it seems some of us don't realize until too late why cruises were invented. I'm sure they were invented for the older folks to enjoy the water from above and not in it.

At the end of this 4 hr journey I was using my flip flops to paddle to the sandbar I could see in the distance that was the point of disembarkment. It's still raining, we are slipping and sliding in the wet gooey sand and we have to take a trail through the woods on a narrow path to get back to where the car is parked. Carrie as usual has spent her time on the river waving at everyone she floats by and on the walk back these same people stop to say hi and goodbye to her. She always manages to make many people contacts where ever she goes.

We rinsed the sand off ourselves at the outdoor showers and trudged on to the car. Carrie was exhausted. We waited for the rest of our party to arrive and as we drove away, I was thinking about the next trip and how it would be minus me, how I would rather have been on a white water trip and how I would feel about that now since it has been something I've always wanted to do. Maybe there should be an age restriction on that also?

Bananas!

Some things are just too funny; when I recall a story I'm told and I start giggling, I know that it was just too funny.
My sister likes to goof around. She and a friend met up with a brother in a little town not too far from her home. They took a spot behind him in the checkout line at Walmart and unbeknownst to the checker, they started harassing him. He was looking for his glasses, a pen, a checkbook and on and on while checking out. Sister started making comments loudly to the checker and no one in particular that there should be an extra line for old folks that slowed down everything. They shouldn't be allowed to hold up the check out process while they looked for their pen, glasses, checkbook, etc. Her friend started agreeing and soon they were telling everyone at large they were thinking about contacting the manager. My brother knowing how his little sister gets, was steadily ignoring her and her friend. The checker was trying to ignore them too. I'm sure she was embarrassed for my brother. She had no idea it was his sister harassing him. I'm sure keeping a straight face through this was a strain and hiding laughter must have been painful.
They almost get through the check out line when she remembers she wants to get some bananas. She darts back to the produce department where she sees an oriental man loading all the bananas onto a cart. She assumes he is moving them to another section of the store so she stops him and says "Oh. Wait! I want some of those." She proceeds to select the bananas she wants and races back to the checkout line.
While waiting, she hears her brother say "Did you see that oriental guy? He comes in here and buys up all that older produce for his restaurant he owns here."
Score one! Sister just realizes that the guy moving the bananas was not an employee of Walmart but a customer and she had just accosted him and took some of his bananas from him.
She was mortified and embarrassed and to this I say "What goes around, comes around" and when I think of what that oriental man must have been thinking about "rude Americans" I break down in laughter again.

Carrie is Calling

I can hear her calling my name from the office where she has been sent to play her online games at noggin.com.

She spends each Wednesday night with me while her mother is working. There goes the nap I had planned for this afternoon. There goes any of the me time; my selfish time.

I do have to give hubby credit though. He spends a lot of time with her when she is here. She likes hanging out with him; he spends more time outdoors then I do. She comes in all sweaty and hot and her little face is flushed bright pink from the heat.

I'll have her a nice bubble bath ready later tonight and wash the sweat off her body and shampoo it out of her hair and I'll have a sweet smelling child by bedtime. I know I' m wishing my life away when I count down the days till August and September are behind us for another year. At that time, the weather will cool down to the mid 80's for the next few months and sometimes this lasts even through December.
The humidity is worse then even the heat and lately we have had a plentiful amount of the humidity.

I'm just not doing much at all. I haven't been out of the house in days. I need to get up and dressed and out of here for a while tomorrow. I'm going to plan to do just that. I need a change of scenery even if it is only a view from down the street!

The pain in my foot at the heel has been much relieved by wearing shoes but now I have a burning sensation on the back of the heel and calf of my leg. It is not as bad as the heel pain I was having but it is related to that condition. I'm going to give it another week before I make an appointment with the doctor and consider the option of having a steriod injection.That I'm not looking forward to!
Always something huh?

Summer and Beach Fun

Another hot one here. Hot and dry. We heard some thunder rumbling late in the afternoon and a few drops of rain fell but not even enough to wet the driveway. I'm surprised we haven't had any tropical storms in the Atlantic. August and September are the two months that our lives here in the Gulf prepare for the havoc of a hurricane. Every year I dread them more and more. We haven't had any real damage from them but we always have a huge mess to clean up after they pass.

Maybe this will be a quiet year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.



I have been watching the Shark Attack documentaries and I shutter to think that the area of Florida we were just in is where the shark attacks were reported in years past. Maybe it was a good thing the boys didn't want to spend all their time in the ocean. One year not to long ago a family in Gonzales went to Destin, Florida with their daughter and a friend of the daughter. The friend didn't come back alive. A shark attacked her and she bled to death. I think about this when I go to the beach and I worry if I take my grandchildren with me. I would prefer to have their mother with me so she can make the decisions on letting them in the surf. I'm perfectly happy to hang out at the pool where I can see everything in the water and where the staff clean it every day.
I'm posting this late..very late but I'm going to post anyway. The date shown will be the date I orginally started this post and just left it hanging in draft limbo.
Enough..I'm done with it.

Tall, Black and Rectangular

Every time I walk into the Walmart store, I have to detour around a tall black rectangular box that sits dead center in the entrance foyer. A sign attached to it begs for donations for the needy children of the parish. The donation? Paper, pencils, crayons, tape, paper towels and all the other things found on the school list required for the lower grades.

A couple of days ago that box wasn't to the half way mark; today it runneth over. I find that a testament to the people living here. Donating to a charity is a risky business. You are never certain where the money will go nor how much of it will get to the needy and not to a big salary collected by the managers of these charities.
Soon there will be a drive to collect uniforms outgrown by last year's students. These will be available for those families that can't afford uniforms for their children.



Uniforms are worn by all the students here and the parents love it. It's not only less expensive to buy the uniforms but it also makes dressing in the morning easier. You have two choices, tan or navy blue. You pick one and you're done with the decisions on what to wear. If it's hot, you wear shorts in tan or navy and if it's cold you select the slacks in tan or navy. Uniforms are a wonderful thing for parents. Don't ask the child. Since they don't contribute to a clothing budget, they would prefer the parents buy expensive jeans, dresses, shoes and all the other accouterments that go with fashion dressing. I think uniforms solve the competition in clothing that goes on in the schools, is a more inexpensive solution to dressing the child and takes the focus away from how the child dresses. Lets focus on the classroom studies.

My parents could have benefitted from mandatory uniforms for all seven of us. The ones that were outgrown would have been passed down to the younger child and by that time navy blue would have faded to baby blue and the tan would have been white. Clothing us must have been a nightmare for my parents. I know relatives would give us clothes and not one of us ever turned our noses up to careworn clothing. One pair of shoes were purchased for each child. Mine looked like combat boot/shoes. Heavy duty looking montrostities. I was "hard" on shoes so I didn't get dainty girly shoes. I guess today they would be called "sporty". I had shoes; that was enough.

Summer time was barefoot season. I don't remember having running shoes or creeping around shoes or any shoes during the summer. They were saved for school. I often wonder if there are any children out there that still live that way? There must still be big families of children that are limited to what they have to wear. We may have had a limit on personal items but we had plenty of playmates. I didn't miss the personal items but I do miss my old playmates. We built some good memories with each other and I never found regret for what we didn't have.

Weighting

Sitting with legs flat on the floor after the weights. I will do this again this evening to stretch the quads.

Adding the two pound weights to the knee.

Now adding a pillow over the two pound weights then adding a 10 lb weight.