Weblog 227
June 13, 2010~ 12:00 am
I've spent the latter part of this week fighting a cold. (I thought something was up when I came home from work on Wednesday and went almost directly to bed and slept 11 hours... that should've been a clue. LOL!!) Then Thursday found me coughing a lot worse than usual, with no energy. I was a little hesitant about seeing my mother and passing on this bug, but the worst of the 'sickish' feeling only hit me after I got home. Oh, well....what's done is done.
I've doubled up on vitamin B, zinc and C, I've sprayed some Zicam up my nose and on Saturday I felt a LOT better. Hopefully it's just a case of late spring sniffles.
I think my chickadees have flown the coop. On Friday the babies were noisy in their house, the parents always lurking about, waiting to dash in with more food- like this little guy I captured here.
I could hear them quite plainly (and almost constantly) cheeping and carrying on- their parents both on the fence, making trips back and forth to keep that brood fed. They sure did like that little blue-trimmed house.
It seemed like the perfect place to raise a new family- hidden behind the supporting post, banked by bushes behind....
and I was so very happy when they'd chosen it (despite my creeping around and spying on the them.) Chickadees seem pretty friendly, and aren't 'put off' at all by humans. They make a sound that is very much like scolding, and I've come to recognize it immediately...I always thought that sound was 'insects', but now I know better. They're so tiny, I guess they were easy to miss until they took up residence here on the back porch and I got to know them.
The little fledglings only stay in the nest about 11 days after hatching, and as I said, there were no sounds today and no hovering about of the adults. I've seen hide nor hair (or feather or beak, as the case may be) ah well......such joys are short-lived, but oh what fun they were to watch!
And the teeny rose bush that was dying- wasting away to nothing in mum's room in assisted living -is BLOOMING on Beethoven's grave! The leaves turned deep green and a bud popped out
and it's a lovely deep pink color! (And knowing what a sweet, good guy is down under there nourishing its roots, the bloom just couldn't help being truly gorgeous.) I plan on getting another one to plant on the other side of the slab.
It'll look so pretty...and those bushes are hearty. Mum had several planted outside her old apartment that had been given as gifts for Easter or Mother's Day and up they shot every year, bigger and stronger and healthier than the year before. (If you're looking for a 'no fuss' colorful perennial, get yourself some miniature roses. They grow like crazy.)
Notice if you will, the very ITALIAN-looking, fancy drinking bath for the birds. LOL!!
(It used to hold a glass ashtray when it was in my mother's old house) but the birds like it fine. Well....its the grackles who love it. They look sleek and perfect dipping their pointy-beaked heads down in the water, then gently raising their throats to the sky to let the water trickle down. I have no idea why that particular piece attacts only grackles, but it does. It's a backyard mystery- one of many.
I have no idea, for instance, why one crow- just one, comes and lands on the clothes post, gripping the rounded knob on the top and just watching - (not partaking) -while the other birds eat right after I replenish the feeding area. He's a shy guy, but he sure seems to want to let me know he's around. He caws, dips his head as he does so, while I sit on my chair parked just inside the door, sipping coffee and watching; I whistle loudly back as many times as he caws. Back and forth this goes... some kind of communication...I do believe that fellow knows me. Now and again he'll dart down and capture one peanut before he disappears into the trees across the tracks. There no way other than to say............he visits me daily. And I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for the wee flown chickadees and the rare enjoyment they afforded while they were nesting. I'm grateful for this yard, and all of its wildlife abundance- the chipmunks and the birds, the fun and the laughs while watching them. I look forward to that quiet time every afternoon as soon as I get in from work, and I'd miss it if I didn't have those opportunities to decompress with my buddies, enjoying their energy and sweetness.
And if you know of any chickadees looking for a dandy place to set up housekeeping....
I just happen to have a vacancy. First come, first serve. :)
Saturday evening Wayne and I visited my daughter and her family. The talk turned to UFO'S. (This was introduced by Bill, who began asking questions and presenting 'evidence'.....lol....but a 7 year old's 'interviews' are a joy in and of themselves.) He wanted to know first of all, if we believed that UFO's exist and secondly, if we WERE aliens ourselves.
He conducted these interviews much like a TV news magazine host would-- including the MUSIC that punctuates those shows such as....."Do you believe in UFO's? ARE YOU AN ALIEN? -(duh duh DUM!") LOL!!!
Conclusion: I am not.
His mother and father however, were pronounced 'possibles'. Bill has quite the retention when searching for facts. When I asked him outside if HE believes in UFO's he said, "Possibly. They may come from the future, you know." I was very impressed with that theory and asked him, "Bill....where'd you get an idea like that?" "Pap Pap Wayne told me they might come from the future.......(duh duh DUM!")
(Bill had just been inside querying Wayne about his own beliefs.) That boy is a SPONGE......."DUH DUH DUM!" (I'm now waiting on commercials to be incorporated into his presentation. No stone unturned with Bill: absolute accuracy in all things. He makes my heart sing.)
Kay was over the moon tonight because I finally remembered to bring her mother's own plush, sleepy-time TROLL DOLL
(just like this one, only wearing pink)- that I'd promised her a few weeks back. He's just the same size as her Cabbage Patch babies, so clothes are interchangeable. She's thrilled to have the same little sweetie that once belonged to her mother. Back in the 60's we used to call these things 'Wishnicks', and they hung from every keychain, decorated every little girl's room at that time. Ours were never plush, were MUCH smaller, and you couldn't dress them up. Mostly they were naked with crazy-colored hair that looked like cotton candy --and you were supposed to make wishes on them...I certainly had my share. But I can't say I blame Kay for hugging that thing tightly to her....
who wouldn't love a face like that???
June 13, 2010~ 7:00pm
Today was NOT a good day....
I am heat intolerant in the extreme- and when it's hot and sticky, my patience and good humor go right out the window.
Yesterday and today it's been in the high 80's, with humidity at times climbing to 90 percent. On top of that, there's this 'phantom cold' issue, with an intermittant sore throat and malaise. I fretted over whether or not to go see mum and have dinner with her at assisted living, but by late afternoon, I felt pretty good and figured I'd give it a shot- I wasn't coughing, voice sounded clear -throat felt alright.
When I got there I should have been tipped off right away when I saw the large, wall-hugging air-conditioner unit inside the foyer with white towels tucked underneath and a yellow cone announcing, 'Wet Floor'. It felt clammy and not much cooler than outside.
One of the two elevators had a big sign that said, 'Out of Order', so I waited longer than usual, since so many folks were trying to use it with wheelchairs, etc. The hallway on the second floor was sporting big BOX FANS every 20 feet or so. I ran into a nurse and said, 'Air conditioning out?'- "No. But the residents open their windows and it sucks all the cold air out. We tell them that's fine to open their windows, but to please close their doors when they do. But no matter how many times we tell them, they still do it."
I bought that for a while, until I realized there was NO AIR-CONDITIONING functioning more that marginally- (and I also figured with so many old folks with breathing problems and on oxygen, they'd get their asses in a sling if they admitted the air conditioning was non-functional in weather like we've been having.)
It didn't bother my mother at all....lol. We fought over air-conditioning back when she was in her apartment, so I had no concerns there, but I was sweating like a dockhand, and getting grumpy. At ten to five, we went down to dinner. (The elevator on HER FLOOR had the doors in the 'stuck open' position, dark and foreboding looking, with masking tape spiderwebbed over it and a big old, 'OUT OF ORDER' sign stuck to it.) Somehow, that whole thing looked unsafe to me. I pictured disoriented old people walking right through that tape and then getting scared.
The doors to the dining room open promptly at 5:00. By 5:20, there was NO ONE in sight inside the dining room, the stuffy outer hallway was FILLED with wheelchairs and hungry residents, no one paying attention. I couldn't stand it- (and I'd overheard the old folks talking about another day this past week when the doors didn't open till FIVE THIRTY..and when they asked the staff about it, the staff snippily told them, 'We open at 5:30". ) I knew, given my temper, that such a response would have me throwing punches, I was so pissed off- so I kissed mum and drove back home. I'm hungry. The left-over half calzone is in the fridge from dinner Friday. Gonna heat that up and take this griping ass off to bed. Not a good day. Sheesh.
June 15, 2010~ 7:30pm
First off, I stayed home from work yesterday. Woke up further under the weather than I had been, with a sore throat, cough, the runzzzzzz (yep...that clinched it.) I took Imodium and slept most of the day. When I got up in the evening, I hacked off my hair to chin length again (always a bad sign) -washed and set it, and today when I went to work I must have looked awful. I thought I was on the mend, but was told I looked tired and pale. I thought I must have looked like this...
and would garner some sympathy at least. (Actually, I was out of it and testy, and I believe the actual words were- "You look like SHIT." lol!!!)- so I'm betting that to others today......... THIS
is more the way I appeared....exaggerated and badly done makeup (trying to cover over how whey-faced I am) --with a manic, rictus grin and completely out of my mind. (I still don't feel too hot. Hope a good night's sleep will put some pink back into these cheeks....) and chase some of the crazy out of the eyes. I look like a f*cking zombie.
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
I've spent the latter part of this week fighting a cold. (I thought something was up when I came home from work on Wednesday and went almost directly to bed and slept 11 hours... that should've been a clue. LOL!!) Then Thursday found me coughing a lot worse than usual, with no energy. I was a little hesitant about seeing my mother and passing on this bug, but the worst of the 'sickish' feeling only hit me after I got home. Oh, well....what's done is done.
I've doubled up on vitamin B, zinc and C, I've sprayed some Zicam up my nose and on Saturday I felt a LOT better. Hopefully it's just a case of late spring sniffles.
I think my chickadees have flown the coop. On Friday the babies were noisy in their house, the parents always lurking about, waiting to dash in with more food- like this little guy I captured here.
I could hear them quite plainly (and almost constantly) cheeping and carrying on- their parents both on the fence, making trips back and forth to keep that brood fed. They sure did like that little blue-trimmed house.
It seemed like the perfect place to raise a new family- hidden behind the supporting post, banked by bushes behind....
and I was so very happy when they'd chosen it (despite my creeping around and spying on the them.) Chickadees seem pretty friendly, and aren't 'put off' at all by humans. They make a sound that is very much like scolding, and I've come to recognize it immediately...I always thought that sound was 'insects', but now I know better. They're so tiny, I guess they were easy to miss until they took up residence here on the back porch and I got to know them.
The little fledglings only stay in the nest about 11 days after hatching, and as I said, there were no sounds today and no hovering about of the adults. I've seen hide nor hair (or feather or beak, as the case may be) ah well......such joys are short-lived, but oh what fun they were to watch!
And the teeny rose bush that was dying- wasting away to nothing in mum's room in assisted living -is BLOOMING on Beethoven's grave! The leaves turned deep green and a bud popped out
and it's a lovely deep pink color! (And knowing what a sweet, good guy is down under there nourishing its roots, the bloom just couldn't help being truly gorgeous.) I plan on getting another one to plant on the other side of the slab.
It'll look so pretty...and those bushes are hearty. Mum had several planted outside her old apartment that had been given as gifts for Easter or Mother's Day and up they shot every year, bigger and stronger and healthier than the year before. (If you're looking for a 'no fuss' colorful perennial, get yourself some miniature roses. They grow like crazy.)
Notice if you will, the very ITALIAN-looking, fancy drinking bath for the birds. LOL!!
(It used to hold a glass ashtray when it was in my mother's old house) but the birds like it fine. Well....its the grackles who love it. They look sleek and perfect dipping their pointy-beaked heads down in the water, then gently raising their throats to the sky to let the water trickle down. I have no idea why that particular piece attacts only grackles, but it does. It's a backyard mystery- one of many.
I have no idea, for instance, why one crow- just one, comes and lands on the clothes post, gripping the rounded knob on the top and just watching - (not partaking) -while the other birds eat right after I replenish the feeding area. He's a shy guy, but he sure seems to want to let me know he's around. He caws, dips his head as he does so, while I sit on my chair parked just inside the door, sipping coffee and watching; I whistle loudly back as many times as he caws. Back and forth this goes... some kind of communication...I do believe that fellow knows me. Now and again he'll dart down and capture one peanut before he disappears into the trees across the tracks. There no way other than to say............he visits me daily. And I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for the wee flown chickadees and the rare enjoyment they afforded while they were nesting. I'm grateful for this yard, and all of its wildlife abundance- the chipmunks and the birds, the fun and the laughs while watching them. I look forward to that quiet time every afternoon as soon as I get in from work, and I'd miss it if I didn't have those opportunities to decompress with my buddies, enjoying their energy and sweetness.
And if you know of any chickadees looking for a dandy place to set up housekeeping....
I just happen to have a vacancy. First come, first serve. :)
Saturday evening Wayne and I visited my daughter and her family. The talk turned to UFO'S. (This was introduced by Bill, who began asking questions and presenting 'evidence'.....lol....but a 7 year old's 'interviews' are a joy in and of themselves.) He wanted to know first of all, if we believed that UFO's exist and secondly, if we WERE aliens ourselves.
He conducted these interviews much like a TV news magazine host would-- including the MUSIC that punctuates those shows such as....."Do you believe in UFO's? ARE YOU AN ALIEN? -(duh duh DUM!") LOL!!!
Conclusion: I am not.
His mother and father however, were pronounced 'possibles'. Bill has quite the retention when searching for facts. When I asked him outside if HE believes in UFO's he said, "Possibly. They may come from the future, you know." I was very impressed with that theory and asked him, "Bill....where'd you get an idea like that?" "Pap Pap Wayne told me they might come from the future.......(duh duh DUM!")
(Bill had just been inside querying Wayne about his own beliefs.) That boy is a SPONGE......."DUH DUH DUM!" (I'm now waiting on commercials to be incorporated into his presentation. No stone unturned with Bill: absolute accuracy in all things. He makes my heart sing.)
Kay was over the moon tonight because I finally remembered to bring her mother's own plush, sleepy-time TROLL DOLL
(just like this one, only wearing pink)- that I'd promised her a few weeks back. He's just the same size as her Cabbage Patch babies, so clothes are interchangeable. She's thrilled to have the same little sweetie that once belonged to her mother. Back in the 60's we used to call these things 'Wishnicks', and they hung from every keychain, decorated every little girl's room at that time. Ours were never plush, were MUCH smaller, and you couldn't dress them up. Mostly they were naked with crazy-colored hair that looked like cotton candy --and you were supposed to make wishes on them...I certainly had my share. But I can't say I blame Kay for hugging that thing tightly to her....
June 13, 2010~ 7:00pm
Today was NOT a good day....
I am heat intolerant in the extreme- and when it's hot and sticky, my patience and good humor go right out the window.
Yesterday and today it's been in the high 80's, with humidity at times climbing to 90 percent. On top of that, there's this 'phantom cold' issue, with an intermittant sore throat and malaise. I fretted over whether or not to go see mum and have dinner with her at assisted living, but by late afternoon, I felt pretty good and figured I'd give it a shot- I wasn't coughing, voice sounded clear -throat felt alright.
When I got there I should have been tipped off right away when I saw the large, wall-hugging air-conditioner unit inside the foyer with white towels tucked underneath and a yellow cone announcing, 'Wet Floor'. It felt clammy and not much cooler than outside.
One of the two elevators had a big sign that said, 'Out of Order', so I waited longer than usual, since so many folks were trying to use it with wheelchairs, etc. The hallway on the second floor was sporting big BOX FANS every 20 feet or so. I ran into a nurse and said, 'Air conditioning out?'- "No. But the residents open their windows and it sucks all the cold air out. We tell them that's fine to open their windows, but to please close their doors when they do. But no matter how many times we tell them, they still do it."
I bought that for a while, until I realized there was NO AIR-CONDITIONING functioning more that marginally- (and I also figured with so many old folks with breathing problems and on oxygen, they'd get their asses in a sling if they admitted the air conditioning was non-functional in weather like we've been having.)
It didn't bother my mother at all....lol. We fought over air-conditioning back when she was in her apartment, so I had no concerns there, but I was sweating like a dockhand, and getting grumpy. At ten to five, we went down to dinner. (The elevator on HER FLOOR had the doors in the 'stuck open' position, dark and foreboding looking, with masking tape spiderwebbed over it and a big old, 'OUT OF ORDER' sign stuck to it.) Somehow, that whole thing looked unsafe to me. I pictured disoriented old people walking right through that tape and then getting scared.
The doors to the dining room open promptly at 5:00. By 5:20, there was NO ONE in sight inside the dining room, the stuffy outer hallway was FILLED with wheelchairs and hungry residents, no one paying attention. I couldn't stand it- (and I'd overheard the old folks talking about another day this past week when the doors didn't open till FIVE THIRTY..and when they asked the staff about it, the staff snippily told them, 'We open at 5:30". ) I knew, given my temper, that such a response would have me throwing punches, I was so pissed off- so I kissed mum and drove back home. I'm hungry. The left-over half calzone is in the fridge from dinner Friday. Gonna heat that up and take this griping ass off to bed. Not a good day. Sheesh.
June 15, 2010~ 7:30pm
First off, I stayed home from work yesterday. Woke up further under the weather than I had been, with a sore throat, cough, the runzzzzzz (yep...that clinched it.) I took Imodium and slept most of the day. When I got up in the evening, I hacked off my hair to chin length again (always a bad sign) -washed and set it, and today when I went to work I must have looked awful. I thought I was on the mend, but was told I looked tired and pale. I thought I must have looked like this...
and would garner some sympathy at least. (Actually, I was out of it and testy, and I believe the actual words were- "You look like SHIT." lol!!!)- so I'm betting that to others today......... THIS
is more the way I appeared....exaggerated and badly done makeup (trying to cover over how whey-faced I am) --with a manic, rictus grin and completely out of my mind. (I still don't feel too hot. Hope a good night's sleep will put some pink back into these cheeks....) and chase some of the crazy out of the eyes. I look like a f*cking zombie.
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