This time it's Survivor. I was on the phone long distance at straight up 7 P.M. when the first Survivor was coming on. I did not want to have to drop that phone and pretend I lost the connection, but I would have. I am going to have to program the VCR to record it in case that ever happens again. Unfortunately, I don't have DVR or TiVo yet! I have seen every season of this show and they keep getting better plus Jeff Probst is just HOT!
I have never cared about decorating outside until I got a house. Now I can't wait for Christmas! Since Christmas is slow in coming, I did a little fall decor today. Have a look! Pretty cute, huh!
Yesterday I planted two flats of yellow snapdragons and 8 yellow mums in my little flower bed around the tree out front. Those flowers are really crammed in there, so when they are blooming, I hope it will be a show piece flower bed. I just love working in the yard. My hard work always manifests itself in my yard. I am so anal about having every thing just perfect.
My neighbor bought a pewter bird bath at the PX at Barksdale Air Force Base yesterday. We have been discussing birdbaths for a while. Hers is beautiful and she offered to go back and buy one for me (since I can't shop at the PX), but I had to decline because the damn thing has frogs on it. Have I mentioned lately that I don't like frogs? She thinks I'm nuts! Someone gave my mom a rain gauge that has a frog wrapped all around it. It's ugly. She knew I didn't want it, but she offered anyway!!!
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!!
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.
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! 
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 under
stand 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.
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!!
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.
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!!
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.
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?
