Engine restarted.....

My engine, that is! The cool weather has me in Farmer Brown mode again. My neighbor came to get me this morning and we took our 1.2 mile walk. This walk is very different from 1.2 miles in my former neighborhood in Texas. I live in a very hilly area now, but in Texas where I came from there were NO hills. So it is a pretty good, beneficial walk.

After we returned, I went to Mom and Dad's to check on them. Dad said he is feeling better, but he just looks bad to me. I cleaned out the rose garden and threw all the old, dead rose bushes away. My brother came over and tilled the area that I cleaned and we got it all ready to plant collard greens and turnip greens. Yeah! Good soul food for the winter!!

To die for ice cream...

Since I was so good all day and only ate some blackened talapia and broccoli, this is dinner!!!! Go directly to your store right now and get you some of this!! You earned it and you deserve it.

It's over!

Big Brother All Stars is over. I am sort of glad because I have been so glued to this show to the point that I wouldn't answer the phone while it was on. Of course, I would check the caller ID to make sure it wasn't someone important.

My neighbor came over while I was mowing the yard today and made me quit and come to her house for some iced tea. She saw how red my face was and was ready to call the paramedics. I was fine...just hot! I made the mistake of telling her I mapped out a 1.2 mile walk from my house and back and started walking it this morning. Now she wants to go with me. I like to walk alone and listen to my Ipod! Oh, well. I'll just go again some other time and listen to my Ipod;that way I get in two walks, double benefits, and get to listen to my Ipod. I just about had a stroke when I got on the scales this morning and there were two more pounds there that weren't there yesterday! WTF! I guess I was deriving considerable benefits from the stairs in my previous home and my 3 to 4 times a week at the Wellness Center in Beaumont. I miss that facility a lot!

Never FORGET!

Don't miss this!

Bulletin: You still have a chance to see Glenn Beck's show on CNNHN tonight. Central time final broadcast is 11:00. This is one of the most powerful shows I have ever seen. It's different and very moving. Don't miss this.....Use your Tivo or whatever device you have, but do not miss this show.

5 years ago today...

I was in my classroom just beginning second period when my principal came to my door and told me that some a-hole (Yes, he did use that terminology) had flown a plane into the WTC. Lots of things went through my mind, none of which were terrorism. I thought of the time just a couple of years prior that I had stood on top of one the WTC buildings and looked in awe at New York City. I thought of my friend who lived there on 86th, but I knew that the WTC was on the opposite end of Manhattan from his apartment. I thought of my cousin's daughter who is a flight attendant for American and flies out of Logan Airport in Boston. School was basically done for that day as no more teaching went on, but lots of TV's were on all day. It didn't take me long to find out that my flight attendant relative was out of the country and my friend in New York was safe.

La-la Land kind of day!

I took one half of a 150MG Deseryl (Trazadone) to help me sleep last night. Not only did I sleep last night, but pretty much all day as well. I have been totally worthless. The yard needs to be mowed, but I am trying to wait until the impending "cold" front comes through tonight and tomorrow. Thursday morning the low is supposed to be 60, so I am waiting for that.

Frogs, Frogs, Frogs....

Since I have turned off the porch light, the frogs have moved to my kitchen window. Now I guess I'll have to turn off kitchen lights as well. When I lived in Texas, I used to get the occasional lizard in my apartment. I finally learned that I could spray wasp spray on the lizard from a long distance and the lizard would die. I tried that on the frogs and they just think they are in the spa getting a good shower. It doesn't faze them. They don't even move!!! What to do!

My dad is not well.......

and he is tired of feeling so bad for no apparent reason. His digestion has basically shut down; he is just pitiful.

I don't like these....

and they are getting on my nerves around my front door. I have killed two today, but two more got away. There was also one in each of my hose boxes where I wind the water hoses up in a box. To me, these don't have any useful purpose. I don't care if they eat bugs. I would rather have the bugs. My front porch light was set to come on at dark, so I guess they were eating bugs all night. I have turned the light off so there won't be any bugs there. Fortunately, I haven't seen even one lizard, which I really hate more than frogs. I'm sure my day is coming when they will find my new home.

While I am on the subject of animals, I have some birds that are pissing me off, too. They are eating from my hummingbird feeder and while they are there, the hummers won't come. I don't understand how any bird, but a hummer could eat through those little holes. These birds have beaks! It's some type of finch just like the picture. I have to run them off so my hummers can feed! I know my hummers are about to embark on a long journey and they need to be tanking up.

Bye, Bye pear preserves!

Mom burned one whole dishpan full of pears. She was sitting right there in the kitchen with them and still let them burn. It is not uncommon for her to go off on another tangent and leave something on the stove, but sitting right there in the room with them is highly unusual.
She also found a filled prescription of Xanax in her purse that Dad is supposed to be taking and two prescriptions that had never been filled! This is a woman who used to never forget anything and had more intelligence than all the rest of us put together! This pains me more than anything to see her losing it mentally!!

More of the same...

Yesterday I went to Mom and Dad's to see how Dad was. He just does not feel well....in fact, he didn't even go to church on Sunday. When I went to my brother's for Sunday lunch, Dad was there, but he could not eat and he just had tears in his eyes. We still don't know what is wrong, but he is slowly being weaned off the last medicine that the doc thinks could be causing him to feel so bad....prednisone. Dad told my mom that he was just in the way and couldn't do anything any more. He soooooo does not want to be a burden to his children. That will never happen. He will have our devotion until the end. It's only fitting after all that man has done for us. Not all fathers deserve that devotion, but this one does. Dad's truck wouldn't start, so Stewart came to see about it, then went to buy a new battery for Dad.

I found Mom up to her eyeballs in pears. She wanted to make some pear preserves, but the pears were so hard, that her apple pealer/corer thingy would not peal them. She was trying to do it by hand with her arthritic hands. She is the type of person that would have tried until midnight if that's what it took to not give up. I pealed all her pears for her and got them cut up so she can make the preserves. That will be the easy part.

Incompetence personified!

Yesterday I went to Dillard's specifically to get my mom and myself some make-up. I have been using Princess Borghese Hydro Minerali Natural Finish for at least 20 years. Now my mom uses it as well. I took the old bottle and specifically told her to make sure it was the correct one because the containers all look the same. When I got home, I looked in the bag and mine was the right kind, but my mom's wasn't. That is $70 worth of make-up and a 60 mile round trip. I took it back today and the lady was very apologetic and gave me a container of their foot cream to help placate me. I told her that I was not a happy camper, so she tried to make me happy. I'm good now!!

Racking up points :)

I went to Mom and Dad's and mowed their yard this morning. It took all morning to do that and I was covered in dirt. The yard is so dry that I had to cover my face and nose with a bandana, looking for all the world like a bandit in the old West. My nose was full of dirt, my hair was full of dirt, and my ears were full of dirt. I just hope I got it all clean.

This afternoon I was on another mission. I needed a hair cut badly, so I went to the mall and waited an hour at Master Cuts before giving up and leaving. As I was going home, I saw a Super Cuts store, so I swung in there and got a hair cut. It is harder to find a new hair dresser that I like than it is to find a doctor. Of course, I haven't found one of those yet, either. Fortunately, I haven't needed one, yet.

Lazy kind of day.....sort of!

Yesterday, I spent the better part of the day taking Mom and Dad to Shreveport for him to see about getting a new hearing aid. Mom forgot her walking cane, so I had to hang on to her any time she had to walk. Fortunately, Dad's appointment went well and he has a new digital hearing aid ordered. That put him in a better mood so he wasn't so hard to be around. Still, it just drains me emotionally to spend a day like that.

So.....today I just chilled. I went downtown and ate lunch at the Blue Moon Java, a unique little coffee house. After lunch I walked down Main Street. It is such a neat little downtown with great potential for unique little shops, but few people are capitalizing on it. The streets are brick and back when all the stores were occupied, my family used to go every Christmas after the stores were closed and window shop because they always had great Christmas decorations in the glassed showcases. The showcased windows are still there....but the stores aren't.

Tonight my brother and sister-in-law dropped by to visit. It's so nice to be close enough for them to do that now. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this place?

My sentiments exactly!!!

Ahhhhh! Retirement!

Your assignment.....

should you accept it is to watch Glenn Beck's television show on CNNHN. I heard his radio show a few times when I was traveling, but he has never been on in my market. When I saw that he was now on TV, I started watching. I don't usually watch anything put out there by CNN, but this one is good. This man is fresh, on target, and really funny! He is on at 6,8 & 11 CST. I only have one issue with him and it is a huge one. He follows a "religion" that just blows my mind!!! I can't see how any intelligent person can believe the stuff this "religion" teaches!!!You can find out which one here.

Whistle while you work kind of day....

It's nearly noon here and the temp is 75 degrees in August.....AWESOME! I had coffee on the patio and have already mowed the yard. Fall flowers are beckoning me, but I know it is too early to plant them.

Dad only spent 24 hours in the hospital and, once again, I was the lucky one that got to experience his monumental impatience while getting checked out of the hospital. It is a mystery to me why in the hell it takes so long to do that, but I am much more patient than he is. The tests showed nothing physically wrong and he felt OK in the hospital, but as soon as he got home he didn't feel good again and didn't want to eat. He is off all the meds that doc thought were causing the symptoms. I just pray that he improves. I don't know how my mom lives with him!!! She is the most patient woman in the world. Today is one year since her triple by-pass and she has never recovered from it.

Here we go again...

Tonight my dad was put in the hospital. We don't know what's wrong, but the doc suspects it may be medication related (as in too much). Dad just doesn't feel well...so much so that he didn't want to live. He is in the local hospital right here in my town, so it will be much easier on all of us, especially Mom. He had lost 10 pounds since he was weighed at the doctor's office just a short time ago. He had an EKG tonight which was normal. I guess they'll nail it down by the process of elimination.

Passing thoughts...in other words..I got nuthin'

Tomorrow's Sunday School lesson is on Love and Marriage......I'm sleeping in.....don't need it!

Starbuck's Frappuccinno: Am I the last one on the planet to discover this nectar of the gods?

She is just so cute. I could watch her all day....personality galore! Food Network has all New Orleans stuff tonight since the focus is once again on Katrina...one year post Katrina. Of course, her shows are pre-Katrina. Some of the places she features are no longer there. :(

Praise God!

WE finally got some rain. We are in a major drought here and all the plants are suffering from the heat and drought. Yesterday, I got .5 inches and today I got .5...both combined with clouds and not so hot may save some plants. For the first time in my life, I am having to pay a water bill and even with restricted watering, it hurts. I refuse to let my grass die. I worked too hard to get it weed free, ant free and lush.

Today I sucked it up and went to a little fellow's baseball game. I knew the heat would be oppressive, but his mother had brought a canopy to protect us from the sun and it also rained. Those kids were so hot, they just played on in the rain and we were not miserable watching them.

My take on global warming.....

It's BS! The record temperature for this date in this area was 103 in........1899!

Big Time Stuff!

As I was kicked back in my recliner getting my day started with breakfast and coffee, there was a HUGE explosion. It rattled the windows in my house. The booms just kept coming and I soon learned that about 10 miles from me is an old Army ammunitions plant. They no longer make ammo there, but there is a business there that disassembles 65 pound bombs and takes the TNT out of them for re-use in newer bombs. Miraculously, no one was killed. I-20 was shut down for 4 hours and the nearest town of 800 residents and two schools was completely evacuated. That town is still evacuated. They still have not been able to get close enough to the area to determine the cause, but aerial evaluations are very bad. There were subsequent explosions all day.....about 30 in all!

Thick and green and...

hard to mow! My fertilization program is working so well that my grass was really hard to mow today. I waited one week to mow and it was a tough job. I almost made myself sick again before I got finished. I guess I am going to have to mow more often than once a week . I love my grass. I can walk barefoot through it and feel confident that I won't step on anything that would hurt my feet!

On another note, my new friends that invited me to go to Vegas with them left tonight and now I am wishing I had taken the plunge and gone with them. They had an excellent deal which included airfare from Shreveport and 3 nights at the Bellagio.

Ho Hum

JUst kicking back and enjoying my retirement.....watching the big, yellow buses go by!!!

Staying in the Will!

I went down to Mom and Dad's this morning to see how they were doing. Their washing machine broke (after 35 years), so I took them to buy a new one. It will be delivered tomorrow, but the area where the old machine sat was a mess. The linoleum tile was brittle, broken, and black. My brother and I got the old machine out, then I chiseled up all the old tile, cleaned it all up and laid some new tile (left over from Mom's kitchen). Who Knew!!! I guess that's one job I had never done. Now I have, but it is not an occupation I wish to pursue. I told my brother to take Dad fishing so he would be out of my way while I was doing this massive cleanup. If Dad had been there, he would have been all in my way and telling me how to do it. I did it and left before they got back!!! Hope they caught some fish!!!

Grass success..

I couldn't find enough grass to fill in the whole area, but the part I did fill in is doing great. I am hoping it will send out runners and get established in the rest of the area.


Aside: I downloaded Firefox to get my pictures to upload!

Yet another addiction...

When I was a child, I loved these things. Now I have re-discovered them and I can't stop eating them. I have gained 5 pounds since I moved in February and I am not comfortable with this, but dang, these things are good!

My day....in pictures!

It's TOO HOT!

Saints or Da Boys!

This graphic thing is making me crazy. I can't give equal space to the Saints for this entry. That's OK...they don't need equal space. All the talk all over the TV is the exhibition game between the Saints and the Cowboys Monday night in Shreveport. First of all, it is too damned HOT for football. It will be over 100 degrees on the field Monday night and miserable in the stadium....plus, the cheapest tickets are $100 and parking is $15. That's just insane!

Coke Blak

I have not always been a coffee drinker and when I do it is really doctored up with all kinds of flavorings. This coke just drew me to it...a fusion of coke and coffee. At first, I wasn't sure if I liked it, but now it is sort of addictive. They are very expensive, so I won't be buying them often, but I keep going back to the fridge and taking a swig of an opened one I keep in there. They have some high fructose syrup and some aspartame, but the small ones are only 45 calories and 12 carbs, so it doesn't do a number on my blood sugar. What's up with this!!!!....a graphic finally showed up!

WooHoo.....progress!

I spent most of yesterday in Shreveport looking at scrapbook stuff. Today and last night I got 13 pages done and I am quite happy about that! What I am not happy about is that I still cannot get images to upload!!! GRRRR! Fortunately, I can use graphics from smileycentral.com. I went to blogger help and found lots of complaints just like mine, so they are working on the problem. Doesn't happen to everyone...just us special people!!

JonBenet

I have a strange, uneasy feeling that this guy is not the killer...but, a wacked out wannabe! I hope I am wrong, but my woman's intuition rarely fails me. (Once again, I can't get an image to upload!!)

My brother is awesome...

My brother had to attend a breakfast in my town this morning and after the breakfast he came by and fixed my lawn mower in 5 minutes. There are a couple of notches that the blade has to fit down into and Dad did not have the blade in those notches. I saw how it was done, but I still don't have a socket set that I would need to fix it. Hopefully, it won't happen again.

Please excuse me while I vent....

My 84 year old father tries to be so helpful, but I swear, he messes up more stuff than he fixes. Yesterday, he took the blade off my NEW lawnmower to sharpen it. It did not need sharpening; after all, I am not mowing fields of weeds! I humored him and let him do his thing. Today, he put it back on. I went out at 8 tonight to mow my yard even though it is still 99 degrees. The mower was vibrating so bad that I couldn't use it. I knew he had screwed up putting the blade back on. I called my brother and asked him if it was possible to put it on backwards or upside down. He said yes it was and Dad probably didn't get it put back in exactly the slot it should be in and he probably doesn't have it tight enough either. NO JOKE!! Stewart told me not to use it because it is dangerous. He will see about it when he can. Anyone want to come for an Easter egg hunt in my lush, tall, green grass??

Frustration....

Since Sunday I have not been able to get any graphics or pictures to show up. It always says it's uploading and then says "done", but then nothing is there. I am frustrated right now because I can't figure out why. Others have put up blogs today including pictures and graphics. Why won't mine work? And just when I tried one last time, it worked!!!

A Non-stop day!

I was at my mom's by 9 A.M. to help her get rid of stuff that she wants gone before the cleaning lady comes Wednesday. When I got there, she told me she tried to catch me before I left to tell me she had an appointment with her orthopedist at 1:45. In the meantime, Dad decided he needed to go to my house and get the lawn mower blade off and sharpen it. Of course, I had to drive him there and back. Nevermind that I was there to help Mom and Nevermind that I need to mow my yard tonight and now I have no blade on the mower. Anyway, after taking him home, I came back to my house to change clothes and went back to get Mom and take her to the doctor. Turns out she didn't break anything, but bruised her knee inside very badly. That was good news because the doc was afraid she could have broken her kneecap and she is in no condition to have to deal with that. I just got home a few minutes ago and got all the sprinklers going because this is my day to water (water restrictions). My brother and Dad went fishing while I took Mom to the doctor and my brother gave me the fish they caught already cleaned and ready to cook. I'll be all over that in a few minutes. Hot fried white perch.....nothing better. Wednesday my dad has an appointment with his pulmonary doc. My brother said he will take him to that appointment. I'm grateful for that!!