Gus is coming!

We have been warned to batten down the hatches even this far north. Predictions are 10 to 20 inches of rain and tropical storm winds. We'll probably lose power. Rita came up the Sabine River between Texas and Louisiana and caused power to go out here and trees to topple. My poor brother was out cutting trees off the roads. I went to a book store today and bought some new reading material in case the power goes out. The whole right side of my body is beginning to be really sore from my fall, so I won't be doing anything requiring much physicality.

Ouch!

I busted my ass big time! Yes, literally! I was putting a new shower head in my guest bathroom that becomes a hand held shower if needed. I got all finished and stepped off the side of the tub where I had been perched on to a little chair I had there to make an extra step. I missed the damn chair and went sailing across the HARD tile floor. I don't think I have any broken bones, but I am banged up pretty badly. Both elbows are swollen and one is bleeding, but the pain doesn't feel like a broken bone.....although, how would I know? I never had a broken bone! Some days I am very clutzy!

How cool is this!

Yes, you, too, can have a Porsche in your driveway. Just go here.

Movie Review...

To avoid being a lazy bum all day today, I finally went to see the movie, The Longshots, which was filmed right here in Minden. It's a nice family movie and there are lots of places that I recognized. Many days last year our Main Street would be blocked off while they were shooting scenes. I didn't see any people in the movie that I know. The movies that film here in the area pay $100 a day just for extras. Maybe someday I'll be an extra so I can buy a gallon of gas!

Speaking of gas, the dealers around here have already started gouging the prices because they think they have an excuse to raise prices since all the Gulf oil rigs are shut down. It went up 10 cents while we were gone to dinner last night and had already gone up 10 cents earlier in the day. It is against the law to do that and the Attorney General has already been on TV warning about it, but it hasn't made one bit of difference.

I better not get the shingles!

At least 4 months ago I got a prescription for the shingles vaccine. Finally, today it came in and because it had to stay frozen until mixed with something else, I had to go to the doc's office and let someone there inject it. Damn thing cost me $216 for one teeny, little shot that I didn't even feel. Damn thing better work!

My money is leaving me at a rapid rate. The hospital called and said my entire bill had to be paid by Oct. 27th (90 days from billing) or it would go to collections! WTF! I know that not everyone can just fork over $1,000 upon receiving the bill. I was going to pay it off a few hundred at the time, but I guess not. Out with the MasterCard! Damn I hated to do that since I had zero balance on my card! I still owed them that much after already paying $700 and having 2....count them....2 insurance coverages. Aetna and Medicare, Part B!

Holy Crap!

I'm glad I don't live in Southeast Texas anymore. I would be leaving for higher ground right now. Any of my friends down there in Orange,TX who need higher ground, I have an extra bedroom and a backyard for your pets.

Wow! What a difference!

I wasn't living in Louisiana when Katrina happened, but there is a new governor and he is on the ball. He has already activated the National Guard, has contracted 600 buses to evacuate those who cannot evacuate themselves, set up hotlines for people to call who want to be evacuated and maybe even cancelled his speech at the GOP convention next week. I do know that the former governor failed miserably with Katrina and the ever whining Senator Mary Landrieu still blames Bush and still begs for money. The incompetent New Orleans Mayor was re-elected by the obviously moronic New Orleans residents. All hotels here in my area of North Louisiana are booked and shelters are already opening. Major differences this time around. Maybe the powers that be learned from the fine people of Southwest Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast that the first thing to do is take take care of your own damn self!

A good distraction...

I took Dad back to the oncologist today and his blood work all looked good. So now they will schedule another CT scan to see how his lungs look. Mom went with us and we went to lunch, so it was a good day for us and a distraction for me. One of my very dear friends had reconstruction breast surgery in Charleston, SC today which was to last many hours. The last I heard she was out of surgery and in recovery and doing well, so I am thankful to have had to think about other things a good part of the day. It didn't stop me from praying for her many times through the day though.

Dumbass Washington!

Garfield on the oil crisis:

• A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.
• ~~~ Well, there's a very simple answer. ~~~ Nobody bothered to check the oil. ~~~ We just didn't know we were getting low. ~~~ The reason for that is purely geographical.~~~

Our OIL is located in :~~~ ALASKA ~~~ California ~~~ Coastal Florida ~~~ Coastal Louisiana ~~~ Wyoming ~~~ Colorado ~~~ Kansas ~~~ Oklahoma ~~~ Pennsylvania and Texas ~~~

• Our dipsticks are located in DC.Any questions? NO? Didn't think so.

Copied from an email...old one...but still pertinent!

Just CRAP!

This has been me pretty much all day..completely distracted and only wanting to sleep. Some days are like that and I don't even care. My dad has severe clinical depression. We found out yesterday that Mom did not refill his lexapro because she was waiting to get him a 90 day prescription. She had no clue that patients are never supposed to stop an antidepressant cold turkey. My brother got it filled yesterday, so I guess it will take a while to click in again.

HOPE!

Choosing Biden as a running mate just may have been a huge error! I can only hope.

In honor of the Democrat Convention

Used up!

My day is finished and it's only 12:55. All morning I planted a fall garden including broccoli, collards, turnip greens, turnips, and radishes. It's only 81 degrees, but I still sweated down my clothes, so now I am closing the garage door....my signal that I am not home....taking a shower and piling up on my bed to watch some TV....cuz that's how I roll!

My new shirt

I have to move!

I just had a scary conversation with my neighbor. She was complaining about the government (specifically Veterans' Affairs Department). I told her to wait until Obama gets in there and see how screwed up it will be. She said "It can't be any worse than it is now!" I said, "Oh, yes it can and kept on walking rather than say something I would regret. I knew she was a BOZO, but I didn't know it went THAT far!

OMG!

It's the Anti-Christ and the DEVIL!

Workin' it!

Yes, I have totally been "workin' it" this morning....the soil, that is! Thankfully, a friend was at Dad's this morning when I needed the tiller cranked. It is too hard for me to crank although sometimes I get it running. He started it right up and I fixed a new place for us to plant a few fall garden items. We planted more tomatoes and as soon as I go buy them, we will plant some collards, broccoli, squash, and turnip greens. Dad didn't feel good, but he came out and dug the holes for the tomatoes. At least he felt like he had done something. I would be glad to do it all myself.

The Anti-Christ!

Be afraid...be very afraid!

Good Friends, Good Company!

Some of my dearest friends stopped in for the night last night on their way from Utah to Texas by way of Tulsa, Minden, and Baton Rouge..then Texas. It was good to visit and it's been a long time since we had a chance to visit. I saw them in D.C. last October at their son's wedding, but that wasn't a chance to visit. They pulled in here in a big ass RV, which was a total surprise. We visited here, then visited my parents and they are now on their way to Baton Rouge. We have been friends for probably 35 years.....that's pretty phenomenal!

Ouch! OH!

That's what will be coming from my mind tomorrow morning. Three of us decided to start going to the rec center and working out today. One of my friends was stricken with transverse myelitis a couple of years ago and it has left her with nerve damage and using a cane to walk. She wanted to start swimming, so we went. I think it will help her and God knows I need to start my workouts again. It's been two and one half years since I moved away from my awesome wellness center in Beaumont where I was very faithful in going several times a week. I will not be swimming, but I will be using the machines
.

Bro took Dad to his treatment today and I went and got Mom to take her to her foot doctor and to get some groceries for her. We are still getting rain and I just didn't feel comfortable with her driving herself to the doctor by herself. Usually Dad is with her. Tomorrow Dad is getting some kind of urology procedure to try to stretch the uretha and give him some relief with his prostate problems. Brother will handle that appointment as well as get his Neulasta shot to boost his red blood cells after this round of chemo.

Huh!

My sitemeter says I have had a flood of hits today all coming from this site, which I have never been to EVER! I have no clue!

You just won the lottery...what would you do?

Ganked from Hammer because he said I could. His questions aren't all lame like most of the meme's.



1. What would be the very first thing you would do? Owe no one

2. Where would you choose to live? I would buy a bigger home here and have a vacation home somewhere in the mountains where it is cool

3. What kind of house would you live in? Whichever one beckoned me at the time.

4. What kind of car would you buy? Lincoln Navigator

5. Where would you vacation? Only in the USA

6. Would you have anything on your body fixed? No. It's too late.

7. What kind of hobbies would you engage in? snowmobiling and golf depending on which house I was in..

8. What charities would you donate to? St. Jude

9. Would you give money to your relatives? If they needed it

10.Would you run away from your current life? Nope.

11. Would you continue to work? I don't work now!

12. Would the money change you in any way? Yes...make me happier

Blogger BS

testing animation in google docs

Chemo week..

Both yesterday and today, I had to be at Dad's early to get him to chemo by 7:30. Due to the early mornings (at least for me), I have been a bit sluggish...in other words..worthless. Of course, we are finally getting useful rain, which gave me even more excuses for being worthless. My brother takes over for the next two days getting Dad to his treatment, then next week I will take him back to the doc afterwhich another CT scan will be scheduled. I shouldn't even complain because he is the one getting the treatment, but somehow I manage to get tired as well.

Got me some culture!

Who knew that in some restaurants they look at your attire when you are seated and if your attire is dark, your napkin gets changed to black! Not me! Learned that today. It's so no white lint will get on your clothing from a white napkin!!Three of us got lots of culture today by going first to a museum and then to a Multicultural Center, then to a gallery and artists reception. Holy Crap! My culture is on overload! By then we needed a drink, so we went to a classy ( no, really) bar for a cocktail and appetizer. After an hour there, we went to another classy spot known as Superior's Steak House. I have been there twice before, but never had to pay myself, thank goodness. One of the ladies had a $150 gift certificate that we had to use up. Actually, we had to add a little to it to give a nice tip. I had steak that was to die for good. It was a very good day!

World's problems....SOLVED!

Our Thursday lunch group stayed at lunch a long time today. It took us longer to solve all the problems of the world. In fact, we are going again tomorrow. We found out our new ice cream parlour now serves soup, salad, and sandwiches for lunch. Hell, yeah! We are there tomorrow. And yes, some of us are even going out on Saturday. One of my buds asked me what I had been doing. I told her nothing but taking Dad to appointments. She said we need to go do something fun to give me a break. Well, yes, we do. We are going to a museum in Shreveport and out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants if we can get a reservation. I have met some good buds here!

Don't miss this!

Finally, a black man who totally gets it right! Why don't we see this man on TV?

Back on target..

After doing nothing more than sleep and eat Jelly Bellies all day yesterday, I got right back on track today. First, I went to Mom and Dad's just to check on them. Dad wanted to go get his truck inspected and get some cucumber seeds so he can grow me some cucumbers. We did that and then I trimmed some low hanging limbs off a pecan tree that were hanging low enough to scratch the cars that drove under them...mostly mine! Of course, Mom started cooking, so I ate some lunch there.


We finally got some rain yesterday, which is what prompted me to just be lazy and sleep a lot yesterday. Right now it's only 86 degrees, so that is good enough for me to get out and be productive....which I plan to do right now....well, maybe after a nap!

Sad, but TRUE!

I am pissed!

Let the world know that I hate ants...ALL ants! I can find no reason that the earth needs ants. I went to check on my baby birds and ants had got to the newly hatched one and killed it and were all over the eggs just waiting for them to hatch. I was so angry that I ripped that birdhouse off the fence, sprayed it down good with ant spray and threw it away. I wasn't about to just take it down and throw it away and let the bastards finish their feast. I killed them all in a fit of anger!! These were not even fire ants, just little piss ants!

Oh MY!

A year or so ago I nailed a bluebird house on the wooden fence around my house. It is in a sort of protected place between the house and the fence, but in an area that I can see from my recliner. It's never had a bird near it...at least that's what I thought! I have never seen a bird go in it or even light near it. A few days ago I opened it just to look because I was going to take it down and there was a nest in there with 4 eggs. I still have never seen a bird, so I thought it was just abandoned. Today I looked again and one of the babies was hatching. I STILL have not seen a mom or dad bird around. Of course, now I'm worried that they won't get fed. I guess they will since surely the mom had to be sitting on the eggs for them to hatch. I think they may be wrens.

I checked on my other babies that I found last week and they have flown away. I never get to see them fly away!

So much for the RAIN!

My rain gauge had only 1/2 inch.....not acceptable for the flora. Professional farmers are losing their money crops..my cousin included! The day started all happy because of the rain, but when I realized it was over and barely measurable, I just fizzled and slept the rest of the day. We did get enough for the moron construction workers to get stuck in the red sticky clay next door. So...what did they do? Yes, indeed. Pushed that sucker over on to my driveway to get it out. I saw a dude out there with MY water and MY water hose trying to wash the clay off my drive way. Well, he only washed as far as the hose reached. He didn't bother to try to hook another one to it and finish the job. I was pissed and they were gone for the day. I guess I'll try to clean it tomorrow. Assholes!

STFU

I am not even watching TV, but while I am tooling around (hyped up because we are finally getting some rain) cooking and cleaning, I can hear The View on in the background. Can I just say that Joy Behar is a COMPLETE IDIOT! Even her voice grates on my nerves. I'm turning that shit off!

Another busy day...

Today was another oncologist appointment. Dad is doing OK. His blood work is good with the exception of the anemia. His anemia numbers (whatever that means) have to be below 10 for Medicare to pay for the shots to build him up again. His were 10.2, so probably next time they will be in the range to get some help with his fatigue.

After I got him all taken care of, I went to the local Council on Aging and got the process started to get Mom hooked up with one of those gizmos to wear around her neck and call for help when she falls.
.

Then I had to make an appearance at the funeral home and sign the book. Of course, after a day like that I had no choice but to swing by the local ice cream parlour for my chocolate shake. It is the nectar of the gods. To make restitution to my blood sugar, I went out at 8 P.M. and mowed in the dark! We are really hoping and praying for rain tomorrow, so I needed to get that done even though I couldn't see where I was going!

My dad

First Day of Chemo..my dad

Unfortunately, he doesn't have that nice hair anymore. It's OK though! I took these photos with my phone on that day, but didn't know how to get them off the phone until today. I wish I was a geek! I still can't get the photos smaller without distorting them.

Problem solved..

Saturday I spent hours trying to transfer songs to my Motorola Razr. Never got it done. Well, today I went to the AT&T store and they solved the problem. Seems my phone did not have a memory card in it. Well, $30 later it does. I'm still working out the kinks and trying to learn how to take pictures and transfer them to the computer. The high tech stuff has left me in the dust. I used to be pretty savvy with computers, but not so much anymore!

UMMMM>>>NO!

I'm officially NUTS!

I know because my neighbor told me so. Yes, I was mowing at 2:30 in the afternoon and she did come over and bring me a cold bottle of water, but it was only 91 degrees and there is risidual breeze blowing from the hurricane. In fact, it has blown my hat off twice today and blew my big garbage can over that has been waiting all day long to be picked up. I just wish it would blow in some rain. 91 degrees feels like a cold front compared to what it has been being.

This morning I went to help Mom peel her pears so she can make preserves, but by the time I got there, she was all finished. I did help Dad put a soaker hose on his row of berries. He is so incredibly weak and he can't see because of his macular degeneration, so I help him see and hold things for him. After he went on inside, I stayed out and put pine straw all around his berries. So, now he can stop worrying about those berries.

Mom spent part of the night on the floor. She even had her walker, but fell going to the bathroom and could not get to the phone to call my brother to come get her up. She really hates to call him in the middle of the night even if she could get to a phone. I guess we need to get one of those Life Alert gizmos for her to keep around her neck. She said she would have used it last night.

Is this dark?

I did something today that I have been meaning to do for quite some time....way before Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. Some people might think it a bit macabre, but when the time comes I know I will be emotionally unable to function to this extent. I burned a song on CD to play at Dad's funeral....Larry Gatlin singing In the Garden. This song reminds me so much of him. It brings tears to my eyes even now. I'm sure I'll be a babbling idiot when the time comes. I already have harvested a picture of both Mom and Dad for the paper. Who has the sense to do these things after they are dead and so many decisions have to be made? Sometimes I feel guilty that I have already thought of these things, but I also know what a pile of mush I will be when decisions have to be made. It would be unfair to my brother to have to be the sole decision maker.

Cuz I can and I feel like it!

We need to add Obama and make this a trio!

I lost my mind today!

I made the assinine and stupid decision to do some yard work today. After 1 hour and 45 minutes, I was completely done....not with the yard work, but just DONE! Used up! Cooked! Melted Down! Just DONE! I knew better, but I just felt the need to tidy up a bit outside. I did the edging in the front yard and side yard and mowed a tiny little bit before I had to quit. Also, got everything blown off the driveway and sidewalk. It's another 100 degree day....5 in a row! We hope that we get a some residual rain from the hurricane off our Gulf Coast even though the forecasts show it going to central Texas. We hope it will pull some moisture up to us as well. We are in desperate need of rain. Most of the area is under a "burn ban" now.

Hot as hell!

It's 7 P.M. and the temp on my computer says 103! That temp comes from Barksdale Air Force Base, which is not far from me. I was a total waste of skin today. All I did was sleep until my bro called and said we were going to our catfish place. When I got to Dad's, he was not going because he didn't feel well enough to even go see his girlfriend there. He's the reason we were going. He told brother this morning that he wanted to go, but when the time came, he just wasn't up to it. He did, however, give us the money to pay for our meals. What a guy! His girlfriend sent him a couple of fish and onion rings with a note that he HAD to eat them!

Anyone know why I am getting this message on my own blog on both my computers? It says, "Internet Explorer cannot open the internet site http://beattybuzzzz.blogspot.com. Operation aborted.

I need my tunes!

Since I have screwed up my Ipod, I spent a good part of this afternoon trying to transfer my Itunes play list to my Motorola Razr, which is supposed to play my music. I was never able to get my computer to recognize that my phone was plugged into it. I followed all instructions and it still failed. CRAP! I need my tunes! Not that I am going for a walk anytime soon, but when I do, I want it to work!

It's too HOT!

It's been over a 100 degrees most of this week, so I have been pretty much useless in the yard. Today I went out to spray the crape myrtles because they have that sooty mildew crap. As I was spraying I saw a birdnest in the tree, but I thought it was empty. The parent bird came and sat in the tree....that's when I realized there were babies in the nest so I quit spraying.

Then I went to Mom's and picked some pears off her tree for her because she told me she wanted a few to make some pear preserves. I did a little power washing on her house, but that didn't last long. It's just too freakin' hot. My grass needs to be mowed, but I just can't get motivated to do it in this heat. It's pretty deep because I have watered it a lot trying to get the bermuda grass to choke out everything else. The guy that sprayed my bahai grass said it would do that if I let it grow a few inches tall before mowing. Well, that's been a cinch!!!