Thursday Already?

I've noticed something strange lately.  Weeks that are short, such as those with 3-day weekends, seem to creep by.  But full weeks?  They have raced by lately.

Not that I'm complaing!  It's been a crazy week.  And I'm really glad that tomorrow is Friday.  It just seems like it should only be about Wednesday for some reason.

I started crocheting another cap for Bill last night.  I'd made him a 2nd one a while back, it was green.  I made it with the same directions, yarn type, hook, etc. as all the other ones.  But it didn't come out right.  Then I noticed that all the ones after that one were also off.  Shape, mostly but also in size a bit.  Then I realized that my arms had been hurting for a while, and it was probably when the tendonitis was starting.  So, I took a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong crochet break and then I started to get back into it slowly.  Bill's green hat was either frogged out or donated, I think it was in the donate pile but I don't really remember.  I make a lot of things and then donate them, so that's probably where it went.  Actually, I think I made and remade it two or three times.  There was a point to this, what was it?  Oh yeah!  I started another green hat for him last night.  With the same pattern and yarn size, but with a smaller hook.  The cap pattern calls for a slightly larger hook than my normal one, which is what I made all the rest (good and bad) with.  But I'm using my favorite hook, which is a size G instead of a size H.  I got about halfway through it last night, but then I got busy with dinner and never quite got back to it.  I was planning on getting back on it tonight, but I think I'm going to wait a day or so.  I was very busy at work, and some of it was physically busy - lifting stuff, dragging a trash can that probably weighs more than I do to the curb, etc., and my arms are a little sore.  Along with my back!  So I might not get back to the cap until Saturday.

I also (finally, after months and months of putting it off) got my pattern binder organized.  I have a lot of patterns that I got off the internet, I'm on all sorts of email lists for crochet-related stuff and there are usually lots of patterns with those.  I have patterns that came out of books.  I have patterns that are given away at most stores in the yarn department.  I have patterns I created.  BQ finally decided that enough was enough, and I got it organized last night.  I cleaned out a bunch of duplicates and stuff I either didn't like or had made and wasn't impressed with.  But I still have a very large, 3" I think, plastic binder that is filled to the point of almost being too full.  I have another binder of the same size, it's just waiting until it's needed.  I use plastic sleeves to hold the patterns, most sleeves have two patterns in them.  I had forgotten about a lot of patterns that I had, and now I have all sorts of projects planned.

Now, I just need several days of uninterrupted time and for my tendonitis to cooperate.

68 Years

The Soldier: - By Charles M. Province


It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
If you can read this message thank a teacher,
If you are reading it in English of your own free will THANK A SOLDIER!


It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.


To all the brave men and women who have dedicated or given their lives
to protecting this country and it's freedoms:


Thank you.



Remnants

My Dad was my Hero.

Nothing Spectacular Going On Today

Just Tuesday, I guess.  Which is not a bad thing.

Since I put the hummingbird feeders up, Bill's seen the bird once and I haven't seen him at all.  Or her, he's clueless when it comes to hummingbird gender!  But since femals tend to outnumber the males, at least the ones we've usually had, it was possibly a female.

The wrens on the front porch are all gone.  We've been watching them and they have been getting bigger by the minute and they were standing up in the nest this morning.  Mama bird was in the tree beside the porch, and she was chirping her head off.  When I was getting in the car, I saw her swoop back to the nest and keep going - chirping all the while.  I was pretty sure that she was calling them out for flying lessons, and apparently she was because they are all gone this afternoon.  I'll wait awhile before I clean the nest out.  That's two families of birds on our porch this year, the first was a robin and was actually underneath the overhang on the opposite side of a pole from the nest in the planter that the wren seems to like.

In 3 weeks, we'll be on vacation!  This is the stay at home vacation that we really need.  Otter probably only has class on the Monday of the week, then the rest of the week is free time for her as well.  Other than going to the zoo, if the weather is cooperative that is, we don't have any big plans.  We are going to tackle the doll house refurbish, though.  It's been sitting on my workbench for about a year, since I haven't had any big craft projects that required the use of the workbench it hasn't been a problem.  But I'm wanting to get it done and so is Otter.  We were originally going to work on it last year when we had our summer vacation, but that is when it got so unmentionable hot and we put it off until our December vacation.  But the December vacation became a trip to TEXAS, so it didn't get done then either.  We're going to get it done, or at least as much as we can, even if we have to bring it inside the house and chase Bill & the pachinko machines out of the way!  Actually, I don't think it's going to take forever, we should be able to get it done in a week and still have time to spare.  It's not like when we (ok, Bill) built the thing!

I have a load of laundry going at the moment.  From the sounds, I'd say that somebody had a coin in their pocket and it's rattling around the dryer.  Rule is, anything not removed from pockets before I wash the clothing becomes mine - especially if it's money!  I do check the pockets, but I might have missed something this time.

Otter's very much her parents daughter, so that means that she is a crafter.  Her room is a nice size for her, but she doesn't have much in the way of storage space.  What she does have is an exploding craft/fabric/sewing/etc. stash and no place to put it.  We have plastic shelf units in the office closet, one is holding my misc. stuff as well as the overflow yarn (lot of that!) and some stuff such as our emergency supplies (necessary when you live in Tornado Alley).  Bill's shelf unit is on the opposite side of the closet and has computer stuff, his shipping supplies, junk (he has a lot of that).  There are two or three other shelf units that are in the shed, they were used in the garage and also in the old house to hold our eBay inventory.  I got to thinking about the extra shelves and the fact that Otter needs something in the way of storage.  I measured the shelf unit that's in the closet, then met her in her room and we had a brainstorm.  Upshot is, Bill's getting one of the shelf units out of the shed on Sunday if not before, and it's going into Otter's room.  It will probably block a short part of her window, but not that much.  She's probably going to have to move a couple of things around, but it should work well for her needs.  She's mostly glad she'll be able to get her stuff up off of the floor.  The Borg Queen approves, by the way - BQ hates clutter. :)

I haven't crocheted this week.  My arms are a little sore, after moving stuff around at work and cleaning out old stuff.  I've made a lot of headway, but I still have a lot left to do.  The tendonitis is a lot better, it is never going to go away completely, but when I do stuff like shift files around it tends to act up a bit.  I'm not sure if I'm going to do any more de-cluttering/cleaning out, etc. or not this week at work.  It depends - it's not a busy office and I have a lot of down time.  I hate to be bored almost as much as I hate clutter!  The boys have learned to just stay out of my way, although 95-year-old-teenager has moments when he thinks he needs to help me.  He was in a much better mood today, no political arguments!

Frasier is a wuss.  He is seriously afraid of the electronic fly swatter that Bill has.  He usually will go outside or into the other part of the room when he sees it.  This morning, we had two stupid flies to deal with while we were at the table eating breakfast.  Bill grabbed the fly swatter and the dog saw it.  Frasier was going to go outside, but Bill (and the swatter) were between him and the door.  So, he tried to go around the other side of the table which is where I was sitting.  I grabbed his collar and he buried his face in my lap.  Then, as soon as Bill electrocuted the fly (which bounced, of all things!), I let go and Frasier more or less flew out the dog door.  He didn't come back in, about an hour later I had to go physically bring him back inside and then I had to block the dog door to keep him inside!  I opened it up before I left for work, he ran back outside and Otter said that he stayed out for a long time.  When I had to go get him, he was in the lean-to like he was hiding.

Maggie Moo was the opposite, she was crazy this morning and wanted to play.  Which we did, until I got tired of it but she would have been content to run in circles for hours.  She eventually wound down, and then I think she spent the next several hours napping.  Which is normal for her!

Monday Stuff. Warning: Politics

Monday.  Back to the real world today!

The real world being work.  Which was busy, I'm cleaning out a lot of old files and stuff that should have been thrown out/shredded/donated years ago.  I got a lot done, until the 95 year old teenager got there.  Then progress was slowed considerably, but that's ok.

We have a state election coming up this month.  There is a specific race that is a new state office, it's a new senatorial seat that covers the district we live in.  It's actually a district relocation, and there is no Democrat candidate.  All four are Republicans.  Seeing as how I'm the only person in my house actually registered with a party (Republican, not that anyone is surprised), I'm suddenly very popular with people I've never even met before!  Because Oklahoma is not an open election state, if you aren't registered with the party - you can't vote.  Which is basically taxation without representation, but that's another argument.  I'm also only registered with a particular party affiliation so that I can vote in the primaries.  I'm as conservative as it gets, but I prefer to make my own decisions about who I want to represent me.  The point is - anyone who has that R on their voter's registration is suddenly getting visits, mail, phone calls, etc. about the upcoming race.  It's a primary, but since there are only the R candidates, the winner takes all and wins the seat.  One of them came to the door a week or so ago, but I was having to wrangle a large & furry dog who was suddenly not sure he wanted anyone to talk to me - Frasier gets like that when it's me and Bill's not within sight.    Bill was home, but he was in the other room and Frasier was "on duty" as we call it.  So I only talked to the man for a moment.  Today, Otter and I were just getting home and were actually still in the driveway when the next candidate showed up.  I had time to talk to him, since the dogs were safely in their yard and we were in the driveway.  My first question, as always, is "are you pro-LIFE?"  If the answer is no (it never has been so far), then my next comment will be to say that there is nothing I have to say to them and to say goodbye.  Today's politician said exactly what I'd hoped - that he is pro-LIFE without any exceptions.  So far, I'm not sure who I'm voting for in that race.

I am also not sure at all about the Presidential race in November.  I can NOT under any circumstances, and will NOT under any circumstances, vote for the incumbent.  Probably not a surprise to anyone.

Problem is, I'm not sure I can vote for Romney either.  It's not just me, it's all three of us.  Bill probably said it best:  "There is no way I justify myself when I stand before Father God at the judgement day and explain that I voted for someone whom I consider to be godless."  Yes, that does mean that we don't consider the mormon religion to be Christian.  Which does not mean that we think mormons are bad people.  I've known several and they are generally nice, like most people and they are very pro-family.  But I've done a lot of research on their religion - and many others as well - and we don't believe that it's a true or Christian faith.  For a lot of things, and I'm not going into details about their belief system - but a good book to read is Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakour and there are several others.

That was part of today's discussion at work.  It got a little heated for a while there, the 95 year old teenager believes almost everything he reads and he read some Romney campaign material.  Then we had a history discussion, which I was correct about, and it got kind of interesting to say the least!  Among other things, he told me that faith needs to stay out of politics and shouldn't have any basis on who we vote for or in how we live our lives.  ????  I told him that we are supposed to live our faith in all things and that does include politics.  He knew he was on shaky ground at that point and changed the subject.  (I was never rude, I was always respectful but I was also always firm.  And he shouldn't have been surprised!)

OK, politics over.  For the moment.  Soapbox has been safely stored, but it's ready to be deployed at a moment's notice.

Otter and I did some rearranging yesterday.  Her craft/fabric stash outgrew the corner of her room where it's been stored.  A while back, actually.  I made some room on my craft/stash shelves in the office closet and she relocated some of her stuff to it.  She still could use something else, maybe a small shelf unit, in her room to contain the rest of it.

On Friday, I am acquiring a new niece.  Scooter (Froggy's oldest) is getting married!  Because it's on a Friday, and the specific Friday it happens to be, we aren't going to be able to attend the wedding.  Froggy, I expect a full report - with pictures - as soon as possible!  Do you have any suggestions for Mrs. Scooter's blog name, or is Mrs. Scooter ok?  (Scooter is Froggy's oldest's nickname from when he was very young).

Allergies are making their way back today.  I've sneezed a lot, but I was also dealing with a lot of dust today.  Billyboy was noisy all night.  Otter reports that she's starting to feel the tightness in her lungs that usually means asthma is thinking about showing up.  We had a long-lived thunderstorm last night, most of the night in fact, and it's been sunny today.  That means that things are going to bloom on overload for the next few days.  Joy.

We also had a lot of wind, although we don't have any tree problems this time.  Probably because it's already been blown out of/off of the tree!  There seem to be a lot of other people who have had tree issues, just not us.  Not that I'm complaining!  I'm not happy that anybody else has problems, I'm just glad that we don't this time.

Humming Sunday

The hummingbirds are here!  They officially arrived yesterday, because Bill saw one.  I immediately got two feeders up.  Bill saw one later, probably the same bird, on one of the feeders.  When he saw it at first, it was at one of the spots where I had a feeder last year, so it was probably a returning bird.  I haven't actually seen it yet, but I haven't spent much time out in the back yard today.  It's just too humid and I can't breathe well when it's humid.

It rained most of Friday and was supposed to rain yesterday, but it was sunny and windy.  Which means that it's humid today.  Friday night was in the 50's, yesterday was somewhere in the high 80's but I think it's back to the 90 degree range today.  I accidentally left the bedroom window open Friday night, which Bill discovered when he went to open the window Saturday morning and it was already open.  Which explains why it was so darn cold in the bedroom Friday night/Saturday morning!

Otter and I had a couple of errands today.  She decided that it was a little too much to deal with to carry both her book bag and the laptop in the tote bag carrying case for it.  She wanted to get a sleeve-type cover for it, and she's going to arrange her book bag so that it will also hold the laptop.  We went to Wallyworld and they had a couple, but they were not anything spectacular.  So we went to Office Depot and they had several.  The fancy patterned covers were about twice Wallyworld's price, but they had solid black with different colored outer edges for about the same price as Wally.  Since Otter's a crafter, it was a no brainer - Wally's had patterns but they were not very attractive.  So she got a solid black one with a blue outer edge and she's going to do a little customization to it.  (Which is a normal thing to happen around here!)

While we were out, we went to a thrift store.  I didn't find anything, but Otter found a dvd.  I haven't found much lately on any shopping trips, except the grocery store!  I don't think that counts exactly.  :)

The baby birds in the front are much bigger and look like they may be close to fledging.  They have a lot of feathers now.  We haven't seen them standing on the edge of the nest, but they do look like they are getting closer.  When we go out the door, there are 4 feathered heads sticking up and they all look in our direction.  Then as we get closer, all four heads pop back down but we can still see them.  They will probably be flying within the next few days.

We dumped the jalpenos this afternoon.  They simply were not growing.  They are now filling assorted holes left by the dogs in their mole hunting activities.  They didn't have much in the way of root system growth.  We think that we just had bad seeds, but it's kind of frustrating.  Last year, it was just too hot and dry.  This year, bad seeds.  We're thinking that maybe we should just give up on the idea of growing our own veggies.  We can't really have an actual garden, due to the assorted furry things that live underground.  Gophers eat slugs & grubs that eat plant roots, the roots are usually destroyed by the gopher's activities.  Moles eat the plants themselves, along with grubs and so forth.

A couple of days ago, Otter and I were sitting out on the deck watching the dogs play in the back yard.  I noticed something at the trellis - the dirt was moving.  As in, something underneath the dirt was moving and the top dirt was being pushed up as it moved along the tunnel/trail that it was digging.  We got the flashlight and Otter tried to find it, I uncovered the tunnel a bit.  But it was fast.  It was probably a mole, and it was close enough to the surface that we could see the movement of the dirt.  We squashed down the raised spots, which can sometimes discourage them from coming back.  Otter wanted to get the hose and see if we could flood the beastie out, but I didn't really want my rock garden to float away.  Her second choice was something explosive shoved down the holes, and her third choice was to shove the beagle down there teeth first.

Also, a few days ago the dogs kept going back to one particular spot and rolling on their backs.  I'd looked a couple of times but never could see anything.  Otter found it.  It was a mole, but it was pretty flat!  They'd probably killed it a few days ago and possibly might have gotten it out of one of the two really deep holes they dug.  Both holes were into mole tunnels.  It had been dead for a few days, they usually bring their trophies to us but not this time.  They didn't seem too happy that we took it away from them, I guess they wanted to keep playing with it.

I'm thinking that it's time to dig up all the iris bulbs and start fresh.  They will bloom for many years, but then they eventually "run out of steam" and I think mine may be there.  I want a variety of different colors anyway, so I'm probably going to do that but it will be in the fall since that's the time to plant most bulbs.

I'm not in any hurry to get outside with the shovel!

FRIDAYFRIDAYFRIDAY

In case it's not obvious already, I'm really glad that it's Friday!

Blogger is apparently having a "moment" because it won't let me post a picture.  It actually won't even let me search my computer for the picture I want.

But what I was going to post about was something that made me feel old.  It's been 25 years since ST:TNG debuted!  (Star Trek The Next Generation, or NextGen for the unenlightened).

Froggy, I answered your comment on my last post with a comment, but just in case you don't read it:  It's never a waste of money to feed birds.  Besides the fact that they eat a whole lot of bugs, they are nice to listen to and look at.  And hummingbirds contribute to plant polination, as well as eating bugs.  Birds also spread seeds, which helps in plant growth/regrowth.

I never quite got to the grocery store this week.  So, I figured I'd better go today.  At least if we want to eat for the next several days!  I really don't like to go on Fridays.  It's generally crowded and I like to get home to spend Sabbath eve with my family.  But I had to go today, so I went right after work.  I was actually kind of hungry, since I had yogurt and crackers for lunch.  It's not a good idea to go to the grocery store when you are hungry.  It's too easy to just buy "one of everything" but I managed to do pretty good.  I did have a splurge:  a specific type of sandwich roll was on sale, so I bought several and we made french-ish bread pizza on them for dinner.  Other than that, I stuck to my list pretty well.

We got some rain today.  It was nice this morning, although a little breezy.  It might have gotten to the mid-70's, and it was just very pleasant.  The expected rain came about noon, shortly after I ran my lunch errands (I went early to beat the traffic and then just had the yogurt/cracker things when I got back to my desk).  It rained off & on all afternoon.  When I left work, it had just quit raining.  I ran in and out of the grocery store in record time, like about 30 minutes, and it was (of course) raining when I got through.  The grocery store has drive-up service, which I hardly ever use but did today since it was raining.  The rain quit again by the time I got home, so we were able to get the trunk unloaded easily.  It rained again after we got it all inside but it's stopped now.

I saw a goose parade this morning.  One of the known flocks that lives fairly close to the office was on the move this morning.  With this year's crop of goslings!  They were pretty big, but still smaller than the adults.  They were walking down the side of the road and were starting to cross the street when I went by.  Cars were stopping for them, most people are pretty familiar with the resident flocks in the part of town I work in.  I've had to stop several times to let them cross the road.  They were cute.  Otter goes back to college Monday, the resident flock there probably has juveniles and they may be even meaner than they normally are.  Otter says that the school's geese are evil!

OK, blogger is still acting up so no picture today!

Stuff that is on my mind on a Thursday

Just rambles, mostly.

Froggy, we did get rain & thunderstorms in the night.  However, I slept right through them!  I almost never do, but I have slept through two out of the last three.  I guess I must have been more tired than I thought last night.  We got just under an inch of rain.  The wind was pretty bad, according to the news.  But since our tree limbs have already come down, at least in the one tree, we didn't have any issues with limbs.  But I think a lot of people did.  We haven't had a pool for a few years, we did consider replacing the one we had for many years but decided that they were too expensive for what they are and we bought a new blu-ray player instead.  I realized yesterday that if we had bought another pool, we wouldn't have it any longer - because the only place we could ever put one would be right where the tree came apart a few weeks back.

After I got home, I ran Otter to the college bookstore so she could get the books she needs for the classes she starts on Monday.  Even used, it was close to $200.00.  Ouch!  She's been having some allergy issues today, Bill had the house open most of the day and it didn't occur to either one of them that there might be a connection.  OK, so they were both clueless about it.  The only one who would have realized it (me) was not home.  After we left the campus, Otter told me that she was getting a headache and was probably going to take some tylenol.  I suggested she consider allergy meds tonight, but apparently she ran out of it days ago - and didn't remember to tell me!  So, we stopped at Wallyworld and got her some more.  And I made her promise me that she won't wait until she's completely out to tell me that she needs it.

On the way home, we drove by one of our favorite places.  It's a miniature horse farm!  Lots and lots of little horses running around, and this time of year it always has a lot of people driving bay.  There are babies!  The are so tiny, they look like little stuffed animals running around.  Really cute, and it always reduces us into a puddle of girlsyqueal.  Bill's learned to just deal with it, he expects us to "girl out" whenever we drive by the ponies.  Today was no exception, except that it was just us girls as Billyboy stayed home when we were running our errands.  But how could anybody resist?  It's a foal that is not much bigger than the beagle!

Otter commented today that she realizes her Texan accent has come back stronger in the last few weeks.  Probably because she has spent a lot of time at home with the parental units.  I realized that a) she's right and that b) the way I talk at work is 100% different from the way I talk at home in real life.  Real life being TEXAN!  I hadn't realized that I was making the adjustment, but no longer!  I'm TEXAN and proud of it, and my way of speaking/accent is going to reflect that fact.  Otter says she's been working on HP for a while, trying to get him over his (gasp!) yankee ways.  I guess Pennsylvania counts as yankee?  Actually, he talks pretty much like most people around here with the occasional non-local moment.  But Texan women are very strong-willed, and sometimes non-Texans can't cope with our uniqueness.  I think HP does cope, I'm not complaining about him - I like him, actually.  I'm just making an observance about TEXAN and non-Texan.  And the fact that I'm not hiding my accent anymore!  Not that a) I was ever hiding it or b) we don't have an accent but everyone else does.

Strange sight on the trellis today.  I was outside watching the dogs - who have been going crazy with mole hunting lately.  I saw this strange bug land on the trellis, it was not at all afraid of me and I got pretty close to it.  Like I had my face right up to it.  It was carrying a fly, and it proceeded to suck the innards out of the fly.  I thought it looked a little like a dragonfly, but not quite.  I did some research, and it was a juvinile dragonfly.  Needless to say, it is a very welcome bug!  I knew that they ate mosquitos but not that they eat flies.  Apparently, they are pretty carnivorus little beasties and they eat all sorts of other bugs.  Including bees.

The baby birds in the front planter are getting past the bug-eyed alien stage.  There are four after all, Otter got a good picture today.  They are rapidly loosing the fluff and the real feathers are starting to come in.  They will probably be fledging in a few days.  Until then, they are welcome to stay on the porch.  Mama is one busy little bird!

No sign of hummingbirds yet.  They should be here soon.  Hopefully, very soon!

MondayTuesday

While I love having Monday holidays off from work, I never like the Tuesday back at work.  It usually makes up for the day off, and today was no exception!

Bill's off this week, he's got time to use or lose so he's using it while he can. He might or might not be able to take off when I have my vacation scheduled the first week of July.  Because he works for a school district and is basically the only one who does what he does, there are times when he simply can not get time off.  The summer is usually busy for non-teaching staff anyway, since there's a lot of things that they can't do/fix/replace/etc. when the classrooms are full of students.

Otter starts her summer term next Monday, she'll have classes on Monday and Wednesday but July 4th falls on a Wednesday so she'll probably only have one day of class during my vacation week.  However, we are not planning a trip or anything this year.  We will most likely just hang around the house and probably do a few things that are local.  I'm really looking forward to a stay-at-home-vacation, and we are hoping that Bill will be able to take off at least a day or two that week.  Ideally, he'll be off all that week but we won't know that for a while yet.

Since Bill was home today, he had the septic tank cleaned out.  It's supposed to be done between every 3 to 5 years, depending on size & usage.  It's been just over 4 years so we knew we were close.  The guy came out this morning and he said that we could probably have waited a few more months, but that's not something we wanted to wait on.  A few years ago, the city we live in started installing sewer lines to the outer areas (like where we are) but it was left up to the individual residents to decide about attaching or not.  However, there is a stipulation.  Residents that have septic tanks can have them cleaned out and normal maintenance done, but if the septic tank ever fails then the "grandfather clause" that allows the tanks becomes null & void.  In other words, maintenance is ok but replacement or major repair is not allowed.  At that point, the resident has no choice and has to attach to the sewer line.  At the resident's expense, which can run several thousand dollars.  $250 to get the tank cleaned out vs. $5,000 - $8,000 to have a sewer line put in from the house to the city sewer - not a hard choice!  Also, the existing septic tank would have to either be removed (an addition expense and a big one), filled with sand (cheaper but still not cheap) or crushed in place which would also entail having a considerable amount of dirt brought in to level it up - also not cheap!  And then we would have to pay the additional cost for using the city sewer each month.

Froggy - most of that is for your benefit, since you are about to have a house with a septic tank.  They are not really hard to deal with, you'll have to make sure that trees aren't too close to them because tree roots will go to water.  Septic tanks have extensions that allow water to leach out into the surrounding ground, which tree roots love.  Tree roots can destroy a lot of things, including things like sewer lines (as we found out at our old house).  We use a product called Ridex in the septic tank, it's a powdered substance that is filled with bacteria that help the "contents" of the septic tank to be broken down.  It's available at WalMart and probably most grocery stores, it's under $10.00 per box and it's worth it.  We put it in at the first of the month since that's the easiest way to remember.  There are other brands, but that's just the one we use.  Most toilet paper brands are safe for septic tanks, also.  All pipes that drain from your house will lead to it, disposer, toilets, washer, shower, etc.

I'm not sure what your specific situation will be, at least as far as being able to get work done if needed - check with the city, but more and more cities are getting away from septic tanks and going to sewer lines.  Most septic tanks are underground, but some of them are above ground and look like big metal tanks.  The buried ones can be metal tanks but I think they are most often made from concrete and are probably square.  It's not unusual for the grass directly above the tank to be sparse or even have dead spots, and the area where the leach lines (they have a name but I forget what it is) will often have greener grass over them.  In my yard, we can tell where they are by the greener grass and the fact that it's greener in obvious lines.  Also - you want to avoid building over the tank and that includes not even putting up an above-ground pool over it.

And for the record, septic cleaning is not a job I would want!

OK, today's lesson is concluded.  Froggy - there may be a test later!  :)

Memorial Day

It is the

VETERAN,

not the preacher,

who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the reporter,

who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the poet,

who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the campus organizer,

who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the lawyer,

who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the
VETERAN,
not the politician,
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the
VETERAN

who salutes the Flag,

It is the
VETERAN

who serves

under the Flag,

(Author unknown)

 

Busy Sunday

Obviously, it's a busy day.  Or at least the morning was.

We didn't make it to church.  Nobody could quite get moving.  Mostly allergy related stuff, such as the fact that I feel like I only got about 2 hours sleep last night.

However, Bill still needed to mow the back yard.  Which was his plan for when we got home from church, but since we didn't go he decided to get it done early.  Which turned out to be a good thing, because it's getting warm fast and also humid.  Otter & I had car wash plans for this afternoon.  Mostly, Otter owed me a couple of car washes.  Mid-morning or thereabouts, we got out to the driveway and washed all three vehicles.  I pitched in a bit, since she can't quite reach the middle top of the cars.  She also cleaned up the dog yard, and since they throughtfully made a new (large & deep) hole in the back yard, she had a place to put what she cleaned out.  We also took back the movie I rented Friday, went to the post office to clear the box and stopped at Froggy's favorite fast food place to bring lunch home.

I was tired to start with, now I'm exhausted! :)

Otter enjoyed the Renaisance Festival.  She went with HP & his family.  They had a good time, she said that it was very crowded but that she enjoyed it.

Yesterday's movie was RedTails.  It was better than we expected, we were afraid that it was a l940's setting with 2012 attitudes.  Which it was to a point, but it was actually a pretty good movie.  Although the editing could have been better.  But the acting was good and the cast was good.  They just tried a little too hard at being politcally correct instead of factual.

We're not sure if the jalpeno plants are going to make it.  They were transplated to pots a week or so ago, they are in good potting soil and are getting watered with rainwater on a good schedule.  They get enough sun.  The seeds were new, for this year.  And they haven't grown a fraction of an inch.  Not sure what the problem is.  We're going to give them a little more time, but they are probably destined for a hole in the back yard.

The eggs in the front planter have hatched.  There were 4 eggs, and they are now at least 3 babies.  Probably all four, but Otter took a very fast picture with her cell phone and it wasn't really clear.  It was clearer than the one I tried to take at least.  We were in a hurry since we didn't want to keep mama bird off the nest any longer than necessary, so she took the picture as we were on the way to get in the car.

I think I might be just about through with my latest crochet project.  It's a shawl that I've been working on for a while.  It's actually destined to be a gift for someone, but I wasn't broadcasting that until I was through since my work is not always as good as it could be with the on & off tendonitis issues.  It's going to my sister from another mother, also known as Virginia, but I'm not quite finished with it yet.  It needs a finishing row, which is basically a scalloped edge but I'm not sure exactly which of the many scallop patterns I have that I'll actually use.  Virginia is not very tall, Otter's taller than she is, so I've been using Otter as my stand-in when I wanted to see if it was long enough yet.  After yesterday's two rows, I've decided that it is long enough and is ready for the finishing row.  Which might get done today.  After I'm completely finished, I'll get pictures and put it on the craft blog.

And now, it's back to my usual Sunday activity:  laundry.

Friday Finally Got Here

I was beginning to wonder if it ever would.

Just because I thought it was funny!  And I needed a funny one today.  Also, there is a family story involving a very young me, Mom's dentures and her dog so this one's appropriate.

This is also just cute.

This one is so me.  I don't have OCD, but if I did - I would call it CDO!  I had someone tell me today that he just couldn't understand my system - my system is to alphabetize!

TGIF, Y'all.

The Final Frontier

Beam Me Up, Scotty!

How appropriate.  Gene Roddenberry's ashes are already up there. And now, the Chief Engineer.  Perfect!

WednesdayWednesdayWednesday

Middle of the week and it's kind of slow!  Wednesday usually is.

Although today was a little more exciting, at least as far as work is concerned.  Not the work itself, it was fairly routine although I did at least have something to do all day - which doesn't always happen, it can be a very slooooooooow office at time.

Anyway.

Today's excitement:

I actually found this picture on the internet, but it's a good representation of my day.  Or at least about an hour out of my day.  I was out in the back yard at work, with the 95-year-old-teenager.  We were checking on his garden (lots of peppers and tomatos on the way).  We noticed a large number of winged things with stingers and stripes, and when we were going back in the door we realized why.  They were building right outside of the door and we'd completely missed it when we came out.  I had to tell the "teenager" that we couldn't get them right then, it was best to wait until dark.  Because he was trying to go get the broom and go after them!  That was the LAST thing we needed.  So, I get him back inside and then I go get younger boss and tell him where the wasp spray is.  After the "teenager" left to go take his lovely wife out for lunch, we got busy.  Younger boss actually just stuck his hand out the door and aimed the can at the nest - wasp spray comes out in a very thin, fast spray and it is made to go several feet away since sometimes they get a little testy when you spray them!  All the stingy things died and fell to the ground, and then the nest more or less dissolved and all the (numerous) larvae (dead now) also fell.  At that point, we got the broom and swept them away.

Then, we decided to walk around and see if there were any more.  There were.  EIGHT MORE.  They were all over the place.  Now, they are all d.e.a.d.  And I had to go buy another can of spray since we ran the first one out.  Guess I'll spend the next few days watching to see if they rebuild, since the reason you wait until after dark is so that they are all on the nest for the night.  However, if we didn't get them right then - the "teenager" would probably have gone after them with the broom and there is no telling what the end result of that would have been - beyond numerous stings, that is.

Not much else happening beyond that.  Really exciting, huh?!

It's Pickle Week!

Check this out:

International Pickle Week

I absolutely love pickles.  They were probably my favorite food as a child (next to chocolate, of course). (And chili!).  Mom used to make pickle sandwiches for us.  As an adult, I realize that they were probably one of those running-out-of-grocery-money-too-long-until-Payday shortcuts, but at the time we thought that they were a delicasy.  They are still and always will be my "Childhood Comfort Food."

This one is just too fun not to share.

Sunday Accidents

No, not the bad kind!

This kind:

A web board I'm on had a discussion thread about accidental collections.  You know, where you don't realize you have a collection of something until you are suddenly buried in the item.  I realized Friday that I have one, and it's armadillos.

Bill and I went to a yard sale, as I've already mentioned, and he bought a pachinko machine.  I got another stuffed armadillo.  I realized yesterday that I have an Accidental Collection of 'dillos.  They aren't all stuffed, I have a few brass ones and at least one ceramic one.  And I think a couple more, although I can't really remember at the moment.  With more to come, I'm sure!

Texans like armadillos.  We seem to have odd animals, including scorpions, coyotes, armadillos, rattlesnakes and a few other oddities.

Including chupacabras!  Here's my chupa:

This picture is from a couple of years ago.  But he's still big & furry.  And spoiled rotten!  (So's Maggie.)

Otter didn't see the Batman car on Friday.  She had a good time, although she said that she was very tired from all the walking they did.

Movie review:  Chronicle.  Don't bother.

I'm warm today.  I was very warm yesterday and at one point I gave in and took a nice, cool shower.  Which did help, actually.  I might have to take another cool shower very soon, although this particular warm spell is just starting and I think I'm in for a hot couple of hours.  When your husband puts an ice cube on you and you don't even have time to realize it because it's melted already...

We went to church this morning and it was cold in the sanctuary, as usual.  This time, I didn't mind at all!

Otter and I ran a couple of errands and one of our stops was the dollar store.  We found all sorts of things there that we just had to have.  Including what I think is a new version of one of the only shampoos I can use due to my allergies.  White Rain has always had a fairly low-scent, clear shampoo that we've used for years.  At some point in the last couple of years, they came out with a scented line and Otter's able to use it but I can't.  Recently, it's been harder and harder to find the one I use.  I emailed the company and they did respond, but it wasn't really what I asked them.  What I did find out is that they have discontinued the one I use.  So, I bought as much of it as I could find and also the conditioner that goes with it because it was also discontinued.  I tried a couple things, and have been using baby shampoo lately.  Which works, but not that well because it's not really made for long hair.  Which I have.  And I still needed to use conditioner, although baby shampoo is supposed to not need to be followed with it - well, I guess if you have short hair or are a baby you might not need it!  Last week, I discovered that White Rain has a new product that is almost the same one I've used for years.  It does have a little bit more scent than the previous one, but I tried it and it seems to be working.  It doesn't seem to trigger Bill's few allergies, which a lot of scented things including shampoo can do.  And the dollar store carries it, so I grabbed a couple of bottles while we were there.  I'm going to stock up a bit on it, in case they discontinue this one!

Otter's changed her summer college plans a bit.  She's still going.  But she's put off the math and is taking two classes instead of one.  She's got two weeks left of freedom, then she has two months of two days a week classes.  The school is closed on Fridays during the summer.  Her classes are on Monday and Wednesday.  She'll take the first math class in the fall semester and the second one in the spring semester.  Along with her foreign language class, which is probably going to be Japanese.

I took a quick picture of the bird nest in the planter on the front porch.  I used my cell phone, so I can't post it here.  But we discovered that there are 4 eggs.  Four more little bug eaters!  Mama bird is not leaving the nest the second we come out the door, she is waiting until we are almost to the planter before she flies off and she's not going as far.  She seems to realize that we aren't a threat.

OK, back to my ice water now!

OK, Now It's Really Friday

This time last year, we were getting ready for this:

A day early, but it's an anniversary!

But I might not actually get anything posted tomorrow, so I wanted to mention it today.  It's amazing how much can happen/change in a year.  Otter's gone from being a teenage high school student to about to start her sophmore year of college and she's not a teen any more.  'Scuse me while I go catch my breath!

Froggy, you probably know exactly what I mean.

Otter's off with HP and his family this afternoon, there's a local annual event that is kind of a cross between the fair (strange food and fun displays but without the rides) and an art show.  She was excited about the presence of a car from the latest series of Batman movies.  Hopefully, she'll get to see it.  I saw it the other day, I was on my way back to work and it was being put back in the 18-wheeler that it travels in.  My Batman obsession is only topped by my Star Trek obsession, and Otter is very much her mother's daughter on both counts so she was hoping to get to see the car.  If you can call it that, it's a strange looking beastie.  It's not the car from the 60's tv series or the movies from the 80's/90's.  It's also not very big.  If she gets to see it, and remembers to take pictures, I'll probably get them posted here.  Eventually.  This time, she did remember to put sunblock on and she also took it with her to reapply as needed.  Red heads and sun exposure don't make a good combination.  The last time we went to the State Fair, we forgot the sunblock and she was pink-on-the-way-to-red before we realized it.  We wound up buying her a parasol to use to keep the sunshine off of her (very pale) skin.

This is a good example of my day:

I didn't actualy get IN the fridge, but I did stand in front of the open back door while the cool morning breeze was blowing through and then I stood in front of the fan in our bedroom.  I saw a cute joke:  Global warming is really just mother nature having a hot flash!  No, we don't believe in either global warming/climate change or mother nature.  But it was funny.  (I have been known to stand in front of the open freezer on occasion.)

It's been a warm day today!

Otter and I ran a couple of errands this morning, including taking a trunk load to Goodwill to donate.  Of course, we had to shop while we were there.  :)  Otter found a couple of movies on dvd that she wanted.  I didn't find anything, but that was ok with me.  I was too warm to really be in a shopping mood.

Bill saw a listing on Craigslist for a pachinko machine at a garage sale.  It was literally on the other side of Tulsa from us, we live outside of Tulsa.  But it was a nice drive, the traffic on a Friday at 1:15 is not bad.  He got the pachinko, and I got another stuffed armadillo for my accidental collection.  And the seller was a fellow TEXAN, so it was nice to get to talk to another one of us.

Then we came home and had chili.  Always good!

Bonus Friday

I refuse to call Thursday "Baby Friday" like some of the newscasters.  But I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow and have been confused all day about what day it really is.  So, I've decided that today is Bonus Friday.

Works for me!

The question of the office cat has been answered.  It's what we were afraid of.  We found her this morning, she was up underneath some really low, dense bushes and it looks like she just crawled in there and died.  Very probably of old age, there were no signs of a dog or being hit by a car, and I don't think it was poison.  She looked pretty relaxed and natural, unlike other animals that I've seen that had been poisoned.  It's been fairly cool lately, it was just getting warm enough yesterday and today that we were able to detect any odor.  She had been there for several days.  At least we know what happened to her.  Although younger boss and I have decided not to tell older boss.  We were able to take care of things before older boss got there.

I don't want to end this on a depressing note.

I think that Otter and I might go to a thrift store tomorrow.  We have a bunch of stuff to donate.  Since we'll already be there, we might as well shop!

Of Snakes & Stores (and Whatever Else I Think Of)

Remember this post?  From a couple of weeks back:

Snakes & Elevators

I saw a story on the news last night that really got my attention.  Seems a guy went to Wallyworld to buy a bag of mulch.  Which is kept in the outdoor area, along with all the other garden/yard-ish things.  He goes to pick up the top bag but there's a stick on top of the bag.  So, he picks up the stick to move it off of the bag.  And then the stick turns into a rattlesnake!  The snake did what they do, which is to stretch out a little longer and then flip itself back and bite.  OK, so that's not a good thing to have happen.  But then I read the rest of the story on a news website today -and this is the "interesting" part.  I don't wish ill on anyone and don't take pleasure in someone else's misfortune.  But this guy?  He is a licensed grower of marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, and that's why he needed the mulch.  But, he must have had a dose of his own "medicine" because I don't have a clue as to how he could miss a foot-long rattlesnake!  The other part of the story is Walmart seeming unconcerned about it.  It was in an outdoor area and the store is next to a field, they don't necessarily have any blame in the snake's presence.  But their own employees didn't even make sure he was ok, it was another shopper who was totally unrelated to the man that put him in her car and drove him to the ER.  He's going to be ok, but the ER also screwed up - the doctor just said that it was a dry bite (no venom) and sent him home with instructions to put ice on his hand.  OK, dry bites do happen.  But shouldn't they have watched him for a while to be sure?  Yes, they should have - because his hand was swelled up (proper grammer for a TEXAN) to grapefruit size by the time he got home so he went back and then the ER had to use 6 doses of anti-venin (that's a lot) (also - it is anti-venin, not anti-venom).

So, next time you go to Wallyworld or anywhere else with an outdoor garden section - watch for sticks.  Especially the kind with fangs!

Otter's rearranging her summer college plans.  She's still going to go, but she's taking two classes and putting the math off until the fall term.  I took her to the college this morning since she had to go talk to the enrollment office about something and then I picked her up at lunch.  We had a picnic in the car, sitting in the parking lot of the library and had a really nice time.  Then, I left her at the library and went back to work.  I picked her up after I got off work and since I had my helper with me, we went to the grocery store.  Yes, it was Wallyworld!

But we stayed inside the store and didn't have to buy mulch.  So, no sticks with teeth.

But honestly, how could he NOT see what it was?

Monday Ketchup

I didn't do a so-called normal Sunday post since it was Mother's Day.  (Not that anything is ever really normal around my house).

It's Monday.  Again.  Urgh.

Anyway.  I had a very nice Mother's Day.  We saw the Avengers movie and it was very good.  Stan Lee's cameo was towards the end and caught up by surprise this time.  He created the entire franchise, along with X-Men and several other spectacular comic series.  It's kind of a trend to try to find his cameo appearances in the movies based on his works.  But the movie was really good.  It had quite a bit of fighting but the violence actually wasn't that bad, there were a lot of fight scenes but they are part of the story and not violence for the sake of violence.  Very little blood, nobody took their clothes off (except for one scene after the Hulk had turned back into his human half and then it was implied but not seen and was very funny) and I don't think that there were any objectional words.  The theater has a special on popcorn & cokes on Sundays so we got the large popcorn and then a free refill.

Otter made me brownies.  Surprisingly, there were still chocolate chips left to put in the brownies - Bill was attempting to eat all the chocolate chips but Otter managed to save a few from him!

Among other things at work, today I took down and got rid of all the cat supplies.  Our office pet cat Miss Whiskers has vanished, she has been gone for over a week and we're pretty sure that she won't be back.  We really think that the worst has happened, but the 95-year old teenager prefers to think that she just found a real home.  I hope he's right, but she's probably "gone" gone.  When I got finished, I got the garden hose and cleaned off the back porch (the office is in a duplex).  I didn't toss the cat food just yet, on the slim chance that she actually does show up again.  But we don't expect her to.

Not much else going on around here.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Quick Thursday Thoughts

We're still allergic!  Otter's better than yesterday, although she says that she's tired of sneezing.  I've sneezed more today, but have had less throat tickles.  Bill's still sneezy, and they are hard sneezes but maybe not as often.

On a totally unrelated note, I just realized that I put ear plugs in my ears last night because Billyboy was noisy in his sleep (due to his allergies) and I have no idea where they went.  They were not in my ears when I got up this morning.  Which means that either a) I'll find them by rolling over on one in the night because they are somewhere in the bed or b) they are on the floor somewhere and I'll find one by stepping on it.  They're foam and squishy, it's kind of surprising to step on one.  But at least it's not as bad as the time I stepped on a slug at the old house!

When Otter was little and having bad asthma spells, we would have what we called "living room slumber parties" when she was really having a bad one and we'd sleep on the couch.  That way, I could hear her and she was close enough to me so I could get to her fast if she needed me.  Which happened a few times.  Or if she needed a breathing treatment in the night, because they had to be given on a regular schedule as well as occasionally she just needed one.  One night, I found a slug.  With my foot.  It was on the edge of the metal register over the air conditioner (floor) vent, so it was super cold.  And squishy!  Really gross.  We had lots of slugs at that house, for some reason.  They were possibly coming up from the a/c floor vents, so at one point I actually had salt sprinkled around the vents.  Salt makes them dissolve.  And then they are even grosser!  As I found out when I was vacuuming one day, and found what was left of one after it crossed the salt line.  I'm not afraid of them, I just don't like stepping on them.

Otter and I made our weekly trip to the library this afternoon.  She didn't get quite as many books as normal, but she did get an armload.  I found several and I might actually have time to read this weekend.  Well, that's the plan anyway.

We're going to see the Avengers movie Sunday.  My choice for Mother's Day.  It sounds like it's really good and we can't wait.  I'm probably going to go by the theater tomorrow and get advance tickets, although it's been out for a little while now and maybe won't be sold out.

Then Otter is going to make me brownies.  I told her I wanted her to bake something this year, and she chose brownies.  It took me about 10 months to teach her to crochet (last year's request for Mother's Day) because every time either one of us mentioned it - she'd get sick.  So I kind of forgot about it.  Then I realized that it was nearly Mother's Day again, so I grabbed yarn and a hook one day and announced "today's the day."  At least she didn't get sick!  Actually, she liked it.  She seems to be a natural at it, although she hasn't done much of it because she's been working on some of her other crafts.

But that's ok.  I've created another yarn addict, so I'm happy.

RIF, y'all!

Greetings From Allergy Central

Somebody pass me a box of kleenex.  I keep sneezing!  I was having throat tickles & coughing today, but it's morphed into sneezing this evening.  Otter's allergies are starting to ramp up as well, so we put her dentist appointment off since asthma and dental cleanings don't mix well.  Bill doesn't snore often, but he's been pretty stuffy the last couple of nights so I've been serenaded a lot.  Well, that's why I have ear plugs!

HeeHaw!

It's World Donkey Day!

Go hug the nearest donkey.  Even if it's actually a person! :)

Sunday Splits

As in the banana kind!

Of course, ours were brought home so they were not quite as pretty as this one.  But they were still good.  I stuck them in the freezer for about 30 minutes, while I helped Bill finish mowing and we had them when we got finished.  Otter's ice cream choice was a double scoop cone of birthday cake flavor.  Froggy, I texted you a picture so you probably already know where we went!

Otter and I went to Michael's before we got the ice cream.  She's got a couple of projects that she's working on.  She needed 3 different paints and even though I have enough craft paint to float a boat, she needed the three colors that I didn't have.  Michael's also had the sketch books she likes on sale so she got one of those while we were there as well.

We finished cutting up the limbs today.  The tree has a lot of weak places and I think it's got some limbs that are partially dead.  We're not going to do anything else to it yet.  But I do think that we'll eventually lose the entire tree.

It's definitely a wren that is building a nest in the planter on the front porch wall.  We've seen her a couple of times, no idea if she's the same one as last year or not, but she has stayed in the nest when we've gone out the door a few times.

We watched the movie Tintin yesterday.  It was better than I expected.  The animation was excellent.  I'd recommend this one.

Guess that's it for today!

Happy Star Wars Day!

May the Fourth (be with you).

I realize the irony of the Borg Queen posting that, but it's funny.  I do like Star Wars, it's just not my first choice for sci-fi.  Because, as well all know, Star Trek Rules and the rest of it is just entertainment...

RIF, Y'all.

(Doctor Who is actually my second choice, in case anybody is interested).

OK, enough of that.

Froggy sent me this picture and I just had to post it.  It's so perfect.  And, it's so true:

I have a T-shirt with a similar saying on it, I think it's also says something like "It's A Texas Thing."  Because it is a Texas thing!  We might call 911 - but that would be so that an ambulance could be sent out for the bad guy.  Because he would need it.

I love being a Texan!  Especially when it also involves *RHTW, but that's a seperate issue altogether.

The robins in front have flow off, we haven't seen them at all today.  But there is evidence that another nest is being built in the planter on the front porch, the same one that had a wren family in it last year.  We're seeing a lot of doves suddenly, as well as boatloads of mockingbirds.

I'm really glad that it's Friday.  It's been a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong week.  Bill had to work late and didn't get home until 10:30 last night, and since Otter was running around shopping with one of her girlfriends I was on my own for a while so I went to the grocery store - which was exhausting.  It was also Otter's last week of her freshman year at college and her last finals.  Work was crazy.  But the week is over and I'm glad about that.

We're having steaks tonight.  Which might or might not have something to do with the Texas thing.  Then I'm going to have a glass of wine and put my feet up.  I might not move from the couch until Monday morning!

*RHTW:  RedHeadTexasWoman.  She can be an unwise person's worst nightmare.  Right now, she's itching to come out and play but nobody has given me any reason to let her out of the fence!

Trees and Other Stuff

We got some of the tree limbs taken care of this afternoon.  Bill was able to get the one remaining branch that was still in the tree, the ground was (barely) firm enough for the ladder.  It was a pretty big limb.  Now, it's firewood!  He ran out of steam before he got all of the limbs cut up, he wasn't using the chainsaw for some reason.  It'll probably be Sunday before he has time to work on the rest of the limbs.  The back yard looks better.

Maggie Beagle got herself into major trouble with Otter today.  She would have been in trouble with me as well, but Otter is the one that heard bird screeches and looked out to see what was going on in the yard.  What she saw was her beagle, holding down a mockingbird and about to go in for the kill.  I heard Otter yelling loudly at the dog so I knew something was going on, but by the time I got out to the yard Otter had already gotten Maggie off of the bird and put the dogs inside.  We looked around, and finally found the bird.  It had hopped into the closest cover, which was the iris plants around the base of the non-broken tree.  It was fine, and it was also a young bird.  The screeching birds, that had also been attacking the beagle when Otter was getting the bird away from her, were probably the parents and the bird on the ground was a fledgling.  The fledgling screeched at me in that mad way that mockingbirds have, then it started hopping away and since it was ok we went inside.  We stayed where we could watch, and after a minute or two the parent birds went down to the grass and apparently the baby was ok because they went back up into the tree and kept going back & forth.  The youngster tried to fly a couple of times, but hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.  However, the parents were leading it and it was jumping higher & flapping more so we think it was unhurt.  Later on, they were all out of sight so we think it probably managed to fly and they all left.  There were two or three other birds that were probably it's nest mates and they were all in various stages of flying.  Mockingbirds are special, they are TEXAS state bird and they certainly have the attitude!

We also have a robin's nest, it's on the end post that holds the front porch awning/cover up over the porch from the front door.  There have been nests there before, usually doves but this time it's a robin.  We've been watching mama robin and now the babies are pretty big.  I haven't checked them this afternoon, but I could see them clearly this morning and they were very close to flight.  They might have been about to fledge when I saw them this morning, so they may be gone already.

I did manage to get some sleep last night!  I still feel like I need to catch up, but I am more rested today.  Not sure why I had a few nights without good sleep.  Of course, I am a 50 year old female and it goes with the territory!  I've also been feeling warm lately, not as in fever but as in hot flashes.  This part of getting older is not fun.  I don't have a problem with getting older, it's just the transition stage that I'm not enjoying!

I Think That I Shall Never See A Poem As Lovely As A Tree

But I like it much better when all the limbs are actually in the tree and not all over my back yard!

Obviously, we got some wind last night.  Not that I was aware of it, because I actually slept through the storm.  I was unable to get to sleep for about 2 hours and then I did manage to sleep but not much, not long and not very good.  At one point, I found my ear plugs and used them thinking that maybe I would be able to get to sleep.  That is the only time I actually got any sleep, and that's also apparently when the thunderstorm hit and brought wind with it.

This morning, Otter and I were just about to leave for college/work when I happened to glance out the dining room window.  This is what I saw:

It wasn't quite light yet, so the first couple of pictures are kind of dark.

The orangish light in the back is actually the reflective tape label on the electric box that is in the corner of the yard.  The angle might make it look like it's in the middle of the yard, but it's actually in the far corner.

When we got home, Otter and I went out to see just how bad the damage is.  I was able to pull one limb down, they are all very big limbs.  Really big, in some cases.

We discovered that the entire top of the tree came down.  It's not easy to see in this picture, but a pretty big limb was caught on Lovely Neighbor's fence.  Bill got it off the fence, and it was a very big one.

The limb that is going across this picture is broken off, it's still there because it was too high for Bill to reach without the ladder and the ground is way to soft from the rain to even think about a ladder.

This one and the next one are taken of the tree itself, but because I know where to look and where the damage is I can tell that it's pretty bad.

Hopefully, we won't lose the tree.  But when the top part breaks off like this, sometimes they don't recover.  The trees have never really come back to full strength from the ice storm in December, 2007.  We're actually kind of surprised that this hasn't happened before.  Maples are also not the strongest trees.  Sometimes they get brittle.

Look at the last tree picture  It's the one in question, in December 2007 and it has grown bigger since then but not stronger, obviously!

When we went to bed last night, about 10:00, we knew that there were a couple of possible thunderstorms that could get to us about midnight.  I was awake somewhere around that time and they weren't here yet, so I'm not sure what time they actually arrived.  The weather in the north and northwest part of the state, as well as into Kansas, was the really bad stuff and tornadic.  We "just" had winds, but strong winds and compromised trees are not a good combination!

This is the tree that is right outside the dining room window and we were lucky.  Well, there really is no such thing as luck - it's all God and His will, but you know what I mean!  Also, it could have damaged the fence that the one llimb fell on but the llimb was partially supported by lower limbs that remained on the tree.

Well, at least we'll have a little more firewood to add to the stack.  It remains to be seen if the rest of the tree will need to be taken down or not.