Holy CRAP!

• new brakes and rotors......$543
• my part of first hospital stay.....$1,o47 on top of the $1,000 I already paid and not including the second 5 day stay!
• chocolate milk shake from the local ice cream parlour to ease my anxiety..$3.26

Come over for dinner!

• hot, buttered cornbread
• fresh smothered okra, tomatoes and onions
• new potatoes and onions smothered in butter (not oleo)

All fresh from a garden...not my garden, but somebody's. Dad told someone I liked okra, so someone brought a bag of okra to his house for me. Lots of people would not find this appealing, but to me, it's the best part of summer. Well, at least since I retired from teaching school!

Good news!

It was back to the oncologist today for Dad and the news from the CT scan he had last week was excellent. The larger tumors have shrunk, making his breathing less labored and the small ones are GONE! We started round 3 of chemo today. Doc is happy with the results as are we! He is, by no means, cured. There is no cure for this kind of cancer, but the doc will call it remission after two more rounds of chemo and another scan. After two more rounds, he will be done! He still has had no ill effects other than losing his hair and even that isn't all gone. He is anemic, but that is caused from the chemo and it can be treated with shots after chemo is done this week.

Holy Moly!

At the early service this morning (of which I was in attendance), one of the members (on behalf of the membership) got up at the end of the service and presented our pastor with a little red gift wrapped box for this 63rd birthday. Inside were the keys to a brand new Lincoln Town Car!! Wow! We must love our pastor! A few months ago I got a letter in the mail and an envelope if I wanted to contribute toward the pastor's birthday present. A bunch of people must have given way more than I did!!!! Just sayin'!!!! I'm happy for him. He deserves it!

Political Poo (Obama)

Because I can and I feel like it!

67% Dixie

I took a quiz here to confirm that I am 100% Southern. Holy Crap! I am only 67%. I'm really disappointed. I wanted to be 100%.

FACE FEEDING!

Usually when we are going to our favorite catfish restaurant, I don't eat during the day so I can make a dent in the massiveness that is the SENIOR PLATE. Yes, I am eligible for the senior menu, so don't hate. I might add that the CHILD PLATE is exactly the same thing, so my brother, being the comedian that he is, always orders a CHILD plate. He thinks he's not a SENIOR....funny boy! OK....my point was, before I jumped that rabbit, that I was sitting in QUIZNO'S feeding my face when I got the call that we were going to eat catfish tonight. So now I am still full from that and not at all hungry and craving the wonderful onion rings that our waitress always brings us and never charges us for. Trust me...I will stuff the goodness that is the onion rings in on top of that Quizno's sandwich.

Morons at work!

Instead of those "men at work" signs I see sometimes, there should be one that says "morons at work" on the construction sites next to me. There are two new homes being built by me. Now I know that when I see one of these bobcat gizmos in the picture that my cable is going to be cut. Nevermind that the ground has big red spray painted lines showing the buried cables. When I got back from Dad's, I saw one of these machines at work and when I went inside my house, it was evident to me that my cable and internet were out. I went out and asked the guys if they cut my cable again......."Oh, no Ma'am, we didn't cut anything." Liars......the next time I looked out a couple of hours later, the cable company was there repairing the cable! Why would they just flat out lie? Dumbasses! I knew the freakin' cable was cut!

Dad update

Dad has felt pretty good this week. I bought a few tomato plants to plant at his house this morning and when I got there, he had already been out working in the garden putting pine straw around his berry plants. That's the most he has felt like doing in a long time. I got his tomato plants planted and worked in the yard until I was totally melted down and soaking wet with sweat. Hopefully, we will have some more fresh tomatoes before frost since we planted them under a soaker hose that Dad has snaked through a fence. So, actually it is a drip, but it works.

On Monday we go back to the oncologist, get labs, and chemo. Well, I'm not sure about the chemo. I guess that will depend on whether the CT scan shows any progress in shrinking the tumors.

Worthless waste of skin...

Yep...that was me this day all day long. The ONLY thing I did was go to lunch with the Thursday Lunch Ladies. Yesterday, I was a bundle of energy and did a lot of things including some power washing on the floor of the garage that I didn't do last week. My plans are to someday get "built-ins" and a nice floor in the garage. The concrete has cracks all in it because of the clay soil and the drought. My builder has stopped putting any kind of floors in the new houses that could crack like my tile has done. She has realized that was a mistake for this kind of red clay dirt.

NO Obama 08!

I gave up!

I thought I could prove everyone wrong and at least grow a few perfect rose bushes. Never did I profess to grow a rose garden. The blooms were just beautiful in the beginning, but I fought the black leaf spot fungus with everything on the market claiming to focus on this malady. Nothing worked. Today I dug those suckers up and threw them away. I admit defeat!! Nevermind that it is still 97 degrees at 7 P.M. It had to be done.

Obama's cabinet

Stolen from another email!

I like this!

"Calling an illegal alien an 'undocumented immigrant' is like calling a drug dealer an 'unlicensed pharmacist'" ........ lifted from an email.

I'm tired!

Even though I slept in this morning until 9:30, I am tired. First, I had to go to Wal Mart Hell on Saturday morning to get my dad some OTC Prilosec and take it to him. Before I left, I put the sprinkler on the yard (some day there will be a sprinkler system) thinking I wouldn't be gone long. I ended up working some there on Dad's berry plants and eating lunch there. Yes, my yard got a good soaking, which it needed anyway.

It's been a very long time since I went to the Boomtown casino buffet for their crab legs, so I managed to do that after a nap this afternoon. I filled up on crab legs and drawn butter...scrumptious.

My day in bullets

• Spoke with customer service at the newspaper. Once again my paper was two doors down
• Power washed the patio...the outdoor carpet may NEVER dry
• Saw a dead roach in the den/kitchen...called the pest company immediately..first I have seen since moving here
• cooked a peach cobbler...this time in a metal pan :)
• washed 2 loads of clothes
• read my book Whispers on the Bayou
• washed the patio furniture
• cooked sausage, egg and biscuit for breakfast
• did the crossword puzzle in the paper
• read daily blogs
• and it's only 2:23 P.M.

I think I'll go take a NAP!

Incompetence

Those who know me know of my utmost disdain for incompetence. It's been a rant of mine for many years. I know that finding carriers for the newspaper is difficult because of the low pay and until now, I have had no complaints since I moved to Louisiana and subscribed to the Shreveport Times. The last two days, I had no paper in my yard. Last night I walked over to the two new constructions next to me and found my paper at one of those houses. Tonight I went over again and once again found my paper at the first house on my street....a new construction that no one has bought yet! Obviously, EMPTY! I don't know why this is happening unless there is a new carrier and he/she was instructed to throw to the first house. Up until recently, that would have been me....NOW IT'S NOT. I am now number 3!!! I guess a call will be in order tomorrow to the circulation department.

So far...so good!

We didn't learn much at the oncologist today except that Dad's labs are good. We are scheduled for a CT scan on Tuesday to see if the chemo is having any impact at all on the cancer. We know that there is no cure, but we hope for some shrinkage to improve his breathing. I have not heard him wheeze since he started chemo, so I am hopeful. My sister-in-law gave him a buzz cut since his hair was falling out. My dad still had lots of hair even though he is 86. No more!

The weather gods are smiling....

And so am I! This week we had a "cold" front slide on through here. That means it's 95 instead of 100, but the kicker is low humidity, which actually makes it not so bad to get outside and work. My yard is perfection right now...well, except for the missing caladiums that Bambi ate...because I don't mind getting out and working. The bahaia grass that I had sprayed a couple of weeks ago is fading away, so that makes me happy. Doesn't make the grass real pretty, but it will be as soon as the bermuda grass chokes out everything else.

Tomorrow I take Dad back to the oncologist. He actually felt better today and he wanted me to take him to get his hearing aid and to Wal Mart, so I did. It wore him out though.

One year ago today!

One of the blogs that I read went back to see what she had posted one year from today, so I took that idea and curiously checked to see what I was doing one year ago. It must have been a SLOW day here in Louisiana.

Rant Time!

I'm long overdue for a rant, but the time has come. If you go to a movie...SHUT UP! Kung Fu Panda was a movie I wanted to see since it came out (trust me...it's not that good), so I grabbed my trusty jacket out of the trunk of my car .....because it's always so freakin' cold in the theaters...even though the temp outside is 97 and went to see it. A whole row of Orientals sat behind me and jabbered on and on in their chinky chank language. After a few glares from me....which made NO impression at all, I got up and moved to the other side of the theater. That stuff just pisses me off. On top of that, their damn kids talked all through the movie as well. At least, the kids were talking in English! Usually, I love the animated films like Finding Nemo and Cars, but this one did not meet those standards in my opinion. Six bucks wasted.....at least, I didn't spend any at the concession stand because the line was too long and I was already late for the movie!

No...not so much!

I have had Brokeback Mountain on my DVR for a few weeks. Since I didn't see it when it was THE thing to do, I figured I'd watch it for free now. It took me a whole week to watch it. Every single time I hit "play", I was asleep.....better than Ambian. Finally, a few times I was awake enough to stop the film before I went to sleep. Yesterday, I finally finished the damn thing. I think I'll keep it on the DVR just to use when I do need a sleep aid. Dumb, stupid movie!

Strange stuff!

As we were leaving our favorite restaurant tonight, our waitress came to get me and tell me someone wanted to speak to me. Well, OK! I went back in and there was a lady who had asked the waitress what my name was. The waitress told her my name, so the lady came and told me who she was and that we were in college together. Didn't I remember her? Well, hell NO! That was 40 years ago! I would never recognize anyone that had aged 40 years. How the hell did she recognize me? I didn't even recognize her name. She told me we did lots of things together! Hell if I remember! Now I'm wondering if I should remember this kind of stuff because I surely don't! I'm lucky to remember yesterday!

Sign in Mandeville, LA

Crapola...

I have a black stove, which is a pain in the ass to keep clean. Today after I returned from Mom and Dad's, I had peaches that needed to be fixed some kind of way so I made a peach cobbler using the glass pyrex dish that I have used many times for cooking in the oven. I sat it on top of the stove...no burners on...when it was done for it to cool. As I was kicked back in my recliner reading the paper, I heard a noise. Upon investigation, I found the the bowl of cobbler broken and cobbler spilled out all over the stove. Holy Crap....what a mess! And why did it break? I don't get it! Looks like it's time for a nap!

Damn Bambi!

This picture is from last year. I really suffered planting my caladiums this year because I was sick at the time and could barely move, but somehow I managed over time to get all my caladiums planted across the front of the house like I do every year. They are always just beautiful and blend with the brick on the house. Each year I get random people telling me how beautiful my yard is. Two days ago, I noticed only the stalks remain on one side of the house. Bambi had dessert here! All the ones to the right of the door are GONE! Tonight, the others will probably be gone as well....unless I get up enough energy to make me a spray bottle of hot sauce laden water and go out and spray them!!!! Since these are Louisiana deer, they probably like HOT SAUCE!

Edited to ADD: I fixed a spray bottle of hot sauce and water and sprayed all the remaining ones and I put a radio out there. All I can do is hope. The motion lights only seem to help them see what they are eating!!!

Another round done..

We have finished round 2 of chemo, which took Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and back today for a Neulasta shot. Next week we see the doc again and probably do scans to see if the chemo is doing any good. Dad still hasn't had any real ill effects yet...other than losing some hair. The pain that he has been having in his shoulder is not cancer, but probably his arthritis coming back that, thankfully, has been gone for several years after a series of those high powered shots...whose name escapes me right now. I just know they were very expensive, but when medicare stopped paying for them, Dad stopped taking them and his arthritis didn't come back....well, maybe until now! Just when he doesn't need it!!! It's always something! I think I'll take a nap.

Stress reliever

I left at 6:30 this morning to go get Dad and take him for breakfast, then to chemo. That place was packed by the time we finally got there after labs and seeing the doctor. He started getting his chemo at 11:15 and we got out at 3:00. It was 4:30 before I got home after taking him home, then dropping off a script to be filled. I almost backed out of going to Yoga because I was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. Thank goodness, I didn't. I feel much better after going to yoga and relieving the stress through breathing techniques. It really works...it really does!

We proved it!

Here in Louisiana, the legislature just voted themselves a 200% raise. The citizens of Louisiana went insane...me included! Our new governor, Bobby Jindal, who I voted for and had a lot of hope in, vowed that he would not veto it even though he promised while running for office that there would be no raises. He didn't want to jeapardize his own agenda by pissing off the legislators. The grass roots anger grew and, apparently, the gov had a change of heart after he learned that a recall petition had been filed with the Secretary of State for him and 4 legislators. I guess he saw the light and realized the people of Louisiana were serious. He vetoed it. So...the moral of the story is "Speak up"! Someone might just heed.

Busy Day...

My cousin is here from Virginia and because she didn't get to visit with her family as much as she wanted yesterday at the reunion, she bought boiled shrimp today and we went to Mom and Dad's for lunch. Her mother, who is my dad's sister even came with her and her husband. She is 92 and lives in an assisted living facility very near me. My dad is the only uncle she has left and she loves him a lot. She even bought a blender, ice cream, peaches, etc. so she could blend him up a smoothy because he won't eat much of anything. I had told her that I was going to take my blender to his house so I could make him some milk shakes loaded with Ensure. She jumped on that and bought a blender for them. He told me yesterday that he was depressed and didn't want to keep on keeping on. I don't have a reply for that. I just went home and cried, but I really don't blame him. I just wish he wouldn't tell me that! I am very much aware of how lucky I am to still have both my parents, but even at 65, it's very hard for me to see them deteriorate and know that we don't have much more time together. I can't even imagine what it will be like without them.

Happy Independence Day!

Although it is INDEPENDENCE Day, I just became dependent on someone else's vehicle. As soon as I started south to my mom's this morning, I noticed my car felt like I was in a truck. I felt every bump, which I knew to not be normal. When I got there I saw that the rear of the car was really low...like a ton of bricks were in the trunk. I recognize it as being something I have seen happen to other Lincolns.....rear air suspension went caput! I left it at Mom's and my brother will get it to a mechanic for me on Monday while I go all day taking Dad for his chemo.

We had a family reunion today...my dad's family. He didn't feel good, but he went. Usually, he makes a little speech about his heritage and how proud he is of it. Today he said nothing, but they did have a special prayer for him. It makes me tear up because I am afraid it was his last reunion.

I was invited to join a group of friends this evening for more festivities, but I didn't make it there. My body just said, " Ummmm, NO"!

WooHoo!

A milestone was reached today by me. I mowed the front yard for the first time since early April. My neighbor has been coming across the street on his riding lawn mower and doing it for me since I got sick in April. Today was not incredibly hot, so I managed to do it myself.

I spent most of the day taking care of things for my mom. For at least a year, I have been telling her I was going to get her car cleaned up at a car wash, then do the inside detailing myself. The leather seats really needed cleaning, so I did that most of the day today.

My dad is not doing well. He is still in a lot of pain. Next week we go back for another round of chemo starting Monday.