An Autumn Adventure

Well my dear internets the plan was, initially, to have solar panels installed on our home. I know you just love the new green me, it's exciting. So the solar guy came and said the tree in the front yard would cast too much shade on the panels; of which we need city clearance and our power company’s rebate in order to install plus some of our own monies. What you may ask, ok ask…Yes it’s true, power companies (maybe yours too) are offering rebates to folks that install “Renewable energy” ie solar AND there is more~ don da don ~IRS Tax break, un-taxable added real estate value your home! If possible you really should check into it especially since “IF” we are approved by the city and power company after the solar is installed we get to SELL back our unused solar energy. Yes virtually no electric bill…if all goes right ~ God willing.


So on with the story of the trees, some of you may recall that in our backyard there are a clump of three trees, 2 pines - 1 oak, that scares the poo out of me. The pines creak and scrape against each other with their wonderful big a$$ branches hanging over the power lines that come into our home and that of the neighbor. So we called a tree crew out for an estimate. With the details and money settled the boss man said they would be here at 8 AM on Saturday and low and behold they were. I started a load of laundry before they got here. Dressed and ready for action I grabbed my camera and headed outside with the rest of my family. Those five guys on the tree crew were like monkeys they climbed with ropes and chainsaws. The amazing flock of chain saws buzzed over the morning air, squirrels barked and ran, acorns fell and hid in the aging grass. Before long with a crack, swoosh and plop the tree in the front yard was down and lying horizontally across the street in a sad state for the green me.

Why is it, do you suppose, we must destroy nature to become green?

Having gone back in the house baby girl went in the kitchen for something, I don't remember as things really got exciting then with the tree crew moving to the back yard and tying off limbs so as not to break power lines and what not (the new shed). The sound of chain saws buzzing in my ears and the fresh scent of sawdust still in my nose, baby girl squeaked out, “There is water all over the kitchen floor!” So I told her to turn the dishwasher off because that was on. Beloved said mop it up. Both of us thinking that the dishwasher had sprung a leak. WRONG! Baby girl said, “I don't think I can, there is a lot of water.” I headed for the kitchen and yes indeed there was a lot, really a whole lot of water. My tennis shoes were instantly covered... what ta hell?

Apparently while we were out watching the tree crew in the front yard my happy old washing machine decided to become very energetic, really I guess I should say it became very, very thirsty. You see the water cut off, the thingy that tells the machine it is full just sortta stopped working. Hell it gave up the ghost and died. WATER JUST KEEP FILLING AND FILLING forever, until I shut it off that is. Holy crap! The water, millions of gallons of water, was all inside the laundry room/pantry, kitchen, dining area and managed to find its way under the laminate flooring into my beautiful freshly painted living room walls. Shit it was leaching out from under the walls onto the breezeway and into the garage. OMG---OMG I said!

It would have made a great scene in a sit-com or reality show-heck it was reality- to us. Having thrown all our bath towels to try and stop the progression, we are trying to get the shop vac outta the shed (behind the tree crew) sucking up crazy amounts of water and well I just couldn’t decide what to take pictures of the water or the falling trees. Now don’t forget to count into all the excitement that my left hand still has stitches and my right one ain’t so good either. So forgive my less than focused photos…

My surgery I suppose was just the beginning of our wonderful Autumn Adventure. And yes this story shall continue so worry not that I am avoiding you because I am not, I'm just up two my eyeballs in our RL home ownership issues. That and insurance claims out the wazoo. And where ta hell is that solar guy?

When did this all happen you wonder, before meeting the awesome Funsters. I kept it a secret so as not to depress our meeting and the already made hotel arrangements. I mean why cry (oh I did cry plenty) and sorry for the delay in telling you, my dear, dearest Internets, please forgive me, but time has not treated me well the last couple of weeks…Image if you dare.

WHAT A MESS! With more, way more…way too much more to come.


and a Happy Halloween to y'all. So how has your autumn been going?

The Rock

Just a quick post to let you know we made it to the big granite rock. In the fun surprise is I've met in real life Jannie Funster, little Kelly and Jim. We climbed the rock together … well I didn't make it all the way, I have this thing about heights, steep inclines and falling okay so maybe I'm mean rolling downhill. But whatever. Jannie, her family, my baby girl and Beloved went on without me at my request. Beloved had to stop and turn back as the incline got to be too much for him too. Not because he was scared but because of his rebuilt knee and arthritic hips, but don't tell him that I said so.


It was a beautiful day the temperature was great the company couldn't have been better and I had a lot of fun. The wind was just crazy, blowing and blowing almost blowing my baby girl and Lil' Kelly away. I wish I had more energy to share more but alas things are crazy at our house right now. I'll post on that soon. No really I will.

Did I mention Blue Bunny was there? Yelp he was, cause he had to keep an eye on his Jannie. Make sure she didn't do any flinging out in public.

Please enjoy these few pictures, I'm exhausted and have to go.

Lil' Kelly and the Funster (ignore the strangers in the background they are not important to us)

Me, Kelly, Jannie- can't ya just see the wind

It was so nice to met y'all! and I'll be reading you soon all my dear internets.

Stuff and About the weekend

Those of you that pop in at my photo blog, 365 views by me, know how disappointed I was when I went to see the hand dude and he did not remove the stitches of which I have eleven. The bruising on my wrist is fading very slowly as is the one on my palm, they don't show up in the photographs very well but those blue stitches sure look weird huh?. This post as well as well as the last several ones have been written with the software Dragon naturally speaking and if I have not said so in the past I like it. This is not a compensated advertisement, merely my personal opinion, thank you very much FTC.


While I was out on vacation/recuperation we had an oncologist visit, my Beloved is doing well and we don't have to go back for three more months. His liver enzymes improved due to a medication he has been on called Actos. The side effects he has from it are sore throat and bloating, both of which he dislikes, but if they keep him from having liver problems he is good with it.

I am back at work and things are still slow which is very good for me and my cut up hand. Speaking of my cut you can find pictures at 365 views by me. Hey there is nothing wrong with a little self promotion especially among my dear internets. And speaking of my dear internets we are off this weekend to the Enchanted Rock which is located in the hill country of Texas, where if all goes well I will hook up with (is that an okay phrase to use?) with a fun surprise. I hope we will get to experience what the rock is known for...

It sparks and it hums, the native Indians considered it as sacred. Oh the rock, it is one of the largest pink granite boulders in the United States. I know you are not surprised as everything is bigger in Texas. Anywho I'm looking forward to the trip and the weather is supposed to be autumn beautiful. But don't be jealous my dear internets I shall carry you with me in my heart.

In the meantime before we go I want to leave you with this quote by the poet Todd Boss "Our stories are the pier from which we think we've seen the ocean." And speaking of Todd I want y'all to go read his poem, it is followed by an interview, which you may read while there if you choose.

Safe and happy weekend to you my dear internets, what are your plans?

Camping anyone?

A while back one of my Dear Internets, Jannie Funster asked her dear Internets to tell about their Storm Camping trips. And, well naturally being someone else’s dear Internet I thought that has to be one from the nineties…{cue your favorite pop 90s music}

I was a Boy Scout Den Leader of 11 Webelos I had had them since my son Andrew talked me into being a leader when he was in 1st grade. So-s anyway big camping trip full of competition for Saturday, we went with 2 other families from our Pack on Friday to set up…with special specs—tents straight line, fire buckets, kitchen, 1st aid station the works. It was a good day all went well. We got it set up, ate dinner and bedded down expecting showers during the night –very early morning…

(cue nice snuggly sleepy music)

All were sawing logs beings how we were in the woods ya know…Then suddenly I woke up about 11:30 the wind was sucking the tent walls in and out and made a terrible wheezing sound. I sat up to smoke a cigarette and keep watch. After about an hour it started pouring rain and the wind got worse, if there could be a worse than this was it. It rained harder and water started to come in the bottom of our-oh- so- secure tent and dripped in streams from above. Thunder crashed and shook the ground, no exaggeration it actually shook. Lightening glowed and zipped through the black, black night and I could see other people in their tents scurrying around when the night became as day with the strikes that seemed to be one on top of the next. I woke up the spouse (now the ex) about 12:30-1am. Told him I thought he otta go get the truck as the weather was pretty bad (ya think?) I was feeling pretty nervous about it now. I was hollering at the other two families that he was going for the truck. My son was still sleeping, which was a good thing, a very, very good thing. But really how ta heck can anyone sleep though that. Back story on him—just the previous summer he had been at his grandparents home and witnessed straight line winds of 90 mph, so he would get very freaked out over strong winds.

(cue creepy-the worst slasher music you can think of)

I put his shoes on him while he slept. The wind got worse; cripes who would’ve thought it could get worse. Yes, now it really was totally bad, between the crashing thunder I heard tree limbs snapping and what I could only imagine were tree tops toppling. Holy crap! There was no place to go…our tent had no basement and there was no storm cellar for miles. The spouse wasn’t back yet. What ta hell was taking so long, the truck wasn’t that damn far. I woke Andrew up so he would be awake when his dad finally decided to show up. It took all I had to keep Andrew from running out of the tent into the dark storming blackness in his panic. Bless his heart the fear was awful and broke my heart. I keep reassuring him that it would be okay all the while I prayed that I wasn’t a liar. I held him and rocked him. (He would not be happy that I told you about this part so keep it just between us-mm’k?)

Finally the spouse was back, he hollered at our other families and we all took off for the truck, eight of us ran for it and climbed into my quad-cab dodge. Soaked and scared as hell. While we were running a little tent in the section next to us took off rolling…parents were chasing it. What idiots, I thought just let it go…I found out the next day it had two cub scouts in it, they were fine, I sometimes wonder if they ever camped again; But this about my stormy camping… we along with several other vehicles were lined up on the somewhat solid road near the campsites. A brave soul went car to car telling us to stay put as the road out was flooded and how we were safer in the cars then in the blowed over wet tents. DUH ya think. All eight of us wet smelly people sat in my truck for about FOREVER it felt like but was only about 3 hours.

(cue the bright sunny day is breaking music)

About the time the sun was coming up we were able to pull out. The plan was to come back latter and clean up, the Webelos Do Your Best was cancelled., but I had a few other boys coming for the campout. I called and got a hold of one and asked them to call the others…”tell them not to come.” But two families riding together had already left. They were turned away when they arrived.

After a few hours of sleep my son and I headed back to clean up our stuff, the spouse slept. I wish I had pictures of the campsite it was pretty bad. Tents and camping gear strewn all over and yes the snapping I had heard were limbs, tree tops and even whole trees. As it turned out there had been an F5 tornado pass right by us. Thank God it wasn’t right on us. Should I mention, probably not but I will cause I’m the Queen of this Valley, that the spouse blamed me. Really I should have known there was going to be a tornado. Yeah member I said he is the Ex.

Sorry this post was so long, just be glad you weren’t there. You weren’t there ya?

(cue victory music)

There were no injuries, we all survived to have the Webelos Do Your Best competitions and MY boys, my Cub Scouts won a few (3), placed in a couple (2nd) and lost one. Now that was my fault as I didn’t teach them how to toss a small log tied to a rope over a branch. My boys, oh my boys may have lost that one but they didn’t quit till they got it over a branch. I was and am very proud of them for not giving up. Oh the big one, the really big win…Yeah I so have bragging rights, MY Cubs, MY BOYS beat all the big “Boy Scouts” at fire building. Oh yeah!


That’s all my dear Internets do you have a storm camping story?

It's ALIVE

Okay, my dear internets I survived. Yeah and thanks so much for your prayers, one can never have too many of those. Gonna keep it short today. Photos here…don’t be scared.




Honeymoon was great. We went into Houston for the Bayou City Art Festival, more of an art market and I was so enthralled at looking at the art and talking to the artist that I didn’t take many pictures. Beloved did take some really good ones I’m very jealous, but please don’t tell him.

That’s all for now... Okay stop complaining...enjoy a bit of eye candy.
Un croped an un-doctored (un-like me)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

OOps!

Ooh la la

Because it is my Honeymoon weekend our 7th , I am pre-posting this for you. Now that autumn or fall or just that plan ‘ol little bit of cooling off period has arrived in your area I thought I would post my study of the color brown. Brown and all the shades thereof have their roots in nature the earth (ha ha). What does brown make you think of or better yet what does it make you feel? For me I think muddy shoes and dirty hands from planting vegetables and flowers and even chocolate ice cream dripping off a child’s chin onto their little white shirt, our sweet Mother Earth.

And when we get back from our honeymoon I will be having my left hand carpel tunnel released on Monday the 12th. Give me a few days or less depending on my amount of motion and boredom before I visit y'all. My surgeon better known as the hand dude says my Ulna nerve issue in my right hand/arm may require surgery as well, but that will have to wait even though it hurts bad enough to bring tears to my eyes. My gynecologist says the baby barn (as KimmyK calls it) has got to go, so that surgery is scheduled for mid November. I know I'm gonna wear y'all out asking for kind words to our Father; But you love me and I am the queen of this here valley so please keep me in your prayers, that I will wake up from the anesthesia. Thank you much.


I have asked my daughter Erin, yes her real name, to come over and paint our living room. On accounta I can't because of my hands. DUH! It is currently red, the living room not my hand, which I love but we have had it for about 10 years and I found a pair of pants in a sort of caramel color that I really like. I'm gonna be a little more conservative this time and instead of painting the whole room the one main color caramel I have picked a white(Devine white) for all the walls except one which will be an accent wall and it gets to be the color Mulling Spice. And here is the before view.

Read you soon my dear internets.

Heads up

Look out or your blog may be knocked off and your pocket book surrendered.

My blogging community and of course my dear internets that post reviews on products etc. Which I myself have done, but not for payment of any kind, only for the edification of my dear internets (disclaimer).

Our ever-efficient US government, FTC (Federal Trade Commission), has decided to issue guidelines when reviewing products and I assume services as well. I recommend you  read about it here, whether you are paid or not by monies (cash, check, credit card, points), free products, other services or any other method directly by the advertiser, manufacturer or provider of service. Remember you can’t get anything for free including advice so take heed to this notice on accounta some one will pay the piper even if the pipes are bad.

For those of you who really want all the nitty-gritty here is an eighty-one page PDF file for your reading pleasure.

We need tax money people! Any tax money we can get! We Have Got to fund the bail outs and hand outs Some How and your Tax money is the answer so Cough it up. Soon this may also pertain to your Retirement funds or any other “Windfall” income you may be so lucky to have worked your a$$ off for or suffered through to get.

And remember my dear internets you didn’t read it here

Is IT for REAL?

Justice:

The quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold justice of a cause

Rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of grounds or reason: to complain with justice

The moral principle determining the just conduct

Conformity to this principle, as manifested in conduct; just conduct, dealing, or treatment

The administering of deserved punishment or reward

The maintenance or administration of what is just by law, as by judicial or other proceedings: a court of justice

Judgment of person or causes by judicial process: to administer justice in a community

A judicial officer; a judge of magistrate

(initial capital letter) also called Justice Department. The Department of Justice



Now here’s the thing about that word, say it out loud…JUSTICE. Can you see that it is a word of bias depending on who uses it and for what purposes…you, them or me, your cause, my cause or their cause all for the outcome that they, you or I deem just. WOW that is weird, now say that word again only this time say it syllable by syllable and not too fast. Funny it sounds sorta like

JUST US (who is us?)

Well my dear Internets what is The answer? Come on you know you love it when I make you explore

Edit for Poetic Justice as requested by my dear internet Margaret aka Digital Gran, in Wales (that’s this whole other country Jenni)


Good point, poetic justice where in virtue is rewarded or vice is punished, but therein lies the problem... what is virtue and what is vice, what is reward and punishment as seen through your eyes, their eyes, or mine?