The Colorado Fires

My daughter was evacuated from work today. The fires have already consumed housing near the Air Force Academy. I'm worried sick about what is happening up there. I hope something can be done to control these fires.

Some Random Pictures

I made this for my new facebook profile. My stupid short hair is finally growing out just in time for 100° weather . Yay me. They say timing is everything.

I made this artsy picture of my brother, nephews and myself from the beach trip in May. I really like it, but I sort of wish I had put the horizon straight. It looks like the ocean is all pouring towards the equator.

Freddy the possum brings his sister around every once in a while. My Sweetie named her "Ginger." It's funny but when I named Freddy I wasn't thinking about Fred Astaire.

Basic Math

Sentimentality + Memory Like An Elephant = Bad Combination For Clearing Out Closet.
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I decided to really go for it in my closet and took out the entire row of shirts hanging on the short sleeve rack. I did a good job. I didn't put too many back. As I folded each shirt to place in the giveaway box, I visualized events of when I wore each one. I had many thoughts like this:
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Oh, I remember this from the beach.
I loved wearing this in Vegas.
Eww, I wore that on that horrible trip.
I can't believe I ever wore this.
I wish this still fit.
What was I thinking?
I wish this one wasn't so short.
I remember wearing this in New Orleans.
Oh, I loved this shirt!
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It seemed like every shirt had a story. I think the charity that I am giving them to should make a pretty penny. And I hope the new owners make some good memories in them.
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Fighting Sentimentality + Determination = Cleaner Closet

Best Tongue Twister Ever!

I just came up with my greatest tongue twister of all time:
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Brown Baboon, Black Baboon.
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I can't even say it twice slow.

YUK!

Friday was so horrible I can't even talk about it yet. I am busy working on getting my joy back. I've never wanted to shoot someone in the throat before. It was really horrible. Hopefully, I'll get back to feeling like myself and I'll be able to tell the story. I hope everyone I've ever liked had a far better Friday than I had. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

The Alternate Universe of My Life

I was in the shower yesterday and I was going over scenarios in my head, like what my life would have been like if Dad had not become unhappy with his job in Goldsboro. If he had never applied at the insurance company. If we had never moved when I was 12. I was trying to picture what the rest of junior high would have been like and then high school and where I may have gone to college. It was really weird. I think I would have been a cheerleader and high school president. And I would have been a big honking small town hick. Maybe once I got to college I would have started to turn into the person I became, but who knows?
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So then I asked myself, What's the point of these thoughts? What a waste of time. Then I laughed at myself and thought, Think of it as a form of Fan Fiction. Creative writing, if you will. It was all very strange. I'm just really really glad Dad became dissatisfied with his job. And I'm really really glad he applied for the insurance job and I'm SUPER glad they hired him and sent him to another town. It's fascinating how everyone's moments change the course of history. I don't think about these things too often, but just enough to be grateful for how they played out.

June Musings:2012 Version

 That's a pic of my brother doing some chalk art of a sea serpent on the beach cottage deck. We all go crazy with that chalk. And then when someone forgets and sits against one and wears it on their shirt, we all have a good laugh at them. I did one on purpose. I wrote: NO! backwards and then sat against it.
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The WW2 veteran and his wife who lived next door are gone. They have moved into an assisted living community. The house will go on the market next week. They were the ones that owned Barky Barkerson, the dog that could bark nonstop for 8 hours. They had found a new home for Barky about 6 months ago, so we've had 6 months of blissful peace. I've run through every possible bad scenario for new neighbors. I hope I am wrong on all of them.
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Speaking of neighbors: An orphaned baby possum has been hanging around my front porch. He's really cute:

I keep a water dish out there and put some cat food out sometimes, but the reality is, I'm probably just fattening him up for the bobcat to eat.
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There are so many projects I'd like to tackle, but with only one good arm, I haven't done anything. I know myself well enought to know that I would probably reinjure my shoulder. I wish I had a dollar for how many times I have already said, "Oops. I probably shouldn't have done that."
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So that's June so far. I will be keeping an eye on the house next door. I hope I get decent neighbors.

The Crocodile Slideshow

I had a spectacular vacation. As you can see, my sand sculpture was the best ever and that's because it was a group effort. It's about a 12 foot crocodile (although all the admirers called it an alligator) and we had a blast doing it and loved the responses from people walking on the beach. Our croc actually frightened a few small children. I have bunches of pictures and will probably post them later.
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We had a much larger cottage this year and had the most visitors ever. I think there were 12 people there on Sunday (the 20th). The very best thing about this cottage was the built-in bench on the deck which you can see behind me through the window in the top picture. You never had to think about having enough chairs for people.
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My friend Lo took a lot of pics of the bunch of us out on the deck on that Sunday but she hasn't sent them to me yet. I can't wait to see those. We had great weather and no neighbors on either side. Yeah, that's bad for the economy but it was great for us. And we were a rambunctious group.
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I had so much fun playing games. I learned a new drinking game and it was really funny. I actually laughed so much on several different days that my face hurt. Anyway, I'll have a lot more to say this week about the trip and about how weird and needy Barney has been since we got back. And as much fun as I had, it is always nice to be back home.

Extremes

So today I hugged my daughter and watched her drive off to take up residence in Colorado. And my plane leaves in just under 12 hours to take me to our beach vacation. My moods have been all over the place. Up down up down. But I'm going to the beach! Yay!

Praying to the Tiger?

Every night when I go to bed, I get all comfy and then I say my "Thank you" prayers. I always start with "Dear God....." So last night I was getting all cozy and I realized my little white tiger wasn't positioned right in my hand. It's the little white tiger My Sweetie got for me when I had my shoulder surgery in February. I was trying to get it in the right position and I smiled thinking that just recently I had told My Sweetie that I had not named it (I name everything). So he said, "His name is Al." I was smiling and thinking about that and trying to get my arm positioned correctly. When everything was just right, I settled down, relaxed, and started my prayer. Except I said, "Dear Al...."

Not In The Moment

There's a great saying about not living in the past or the future but in the NOW. I can't think just now what it is, because I am not living in the now. Maybe if I went into the past, I could find it. All I'm doing now, is thinking about what I will be doing a week from now. And I will be doing that all week. I'm doing it right now. A week from now I will be asleep with the window raised just a bit so the sounds of the ocean can wash over my soul.

Oh Well....

I'm terribly disappointed in my home state of North Carolina for passing amendment 1. But now I'm glad I don't live there anymore. What a bunch of rednecks.

Transitions

So my daughter and her husband dropped all their furniture and most other belongings as well as one of their cars off at their place in Colorado and are back here for the month being nomads. They are staying with friends for short stints and so Leaper is staying with me for the month. He's a funny friendly cat and he is highly addicted to catnip. Which no one knew, so now he thinks I'm the cat's pajamas, so to speak.
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I've had a pretty lazy afternoon which I spent most of on the phone with Mom. My brother called us "The Girls' Club" last Friday because A) He had no idea what was going on with my daughter except for what he saw on facebook and B) Mom had not told him that she got an all clear at her last bladder screen (she has bladder cancer). So at the end of today's phone call with Mom, I said, "And this concludes this meeting of The Girls' Club." Mom laughed. Maybe I should have recorded the minutes of the meeting to send to my brother.

Life Changes

My Daughter is moving to Colorado. Her move starts tomorrow. She will be back again Saturday night or early Sunday for more stuff and expects to be at the beach cottage with us in just over three weeks, but it all starts tomorrow.
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If you are wondering why I hadn't mentioned it before, it's because it all happened rather suddenly. I mean not like yesterday, but maybe just two or three weeks ago. An opportunity came up and she took it.
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I am happy for her and think she (they) will be much happier there, but you know....  Well it's going to be weird not having my daughter just 2 or 3 miles away. Oddly, every year when we are melting here, I tell My Sweetie: we should go to Colorado for the weekend just to cool off. But we never did. I guess we will now.

Beware Cats Bearing Gifts

I apparently walked right by that huge lizard a few times before I noticed it. It was in the hallway near my bedroom door. I didn't see it until I was walking out with the sheets to wash. Then I shrieked and ran back into the room. I was panicky and called my husband and told him I was trapped in the bedroom. He laughed.
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I got the golf club and the cat gate and used those to shore myself up to get by the lizard and then I went outside and called my neighbor. I was really freaking out. You would think I had a velociraptor in my house. I felt like I had a velociraptor in my house.
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Carole came over, cool as a cucumber. I handed her a large plastic storage bin and a broom and she swept that creepy thing into the bin. I shakily handed her the lid and she popped it on. She could tell it was injured and felt sorry for it and I was just: GET. IT. OUT.
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It's pretty obvious that the only way it could have gotten in the house was through the pet door in Barney's mouth. I guess he brought it to me as a gift. No thank you, Barney.
But thank you Carole. A lot!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Wow. I had way too much fun this weekend and probably killed half a million brain cells. We did the furniture shopping on Sunday but delivery will take 4 to 8 weeks. I hate delayed gratification. But I guess I'll have to live with it. I hope my brain heals.

A Woman's Prerogative......

My Sweetie was in Seattle earlier this week on business. He called me and gave me a budget number and asked if I could get the living room furniture I want with that and if I would be happy with that as a birthday present. Well, yeah! So I immediately thought: Forget Scarborough Fair, I want to go furniture shopping on Saturday! Then every time I watched the weather forecast all week, it would drop a few degrees for Saturday. It magically dwindled from 77° to 74° to 72° to 69° and always sunny.
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And of course I would think: But that sounds like such nice weather to be outside at Scarborough Fair. On the other hand, since I had decided to ditch that, I had added the $100 we would spend there to the furniture budget. Because that's how I roll.
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Then Wednesday afternoon I went to the grocery store after my physical therapy and as I'm walking around, that creepy saleslady voice came on the sound system. She freaks me out because she always starts out with, "Hi ya'll, it's Kathy Yates and...." And she always says it like we are all old friends and she's being really really helpful. She usually says stuff like, "Hi ya'll, it's Kathy Yates. Are you ready for Easter/Christmas/Superbowl Sunday/The Fourth? Right now we have ham/turkey/party platters/hot dogs on special!" But this time when she came on she talked about Scarborough Fair and said they had discount tickets.
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Synchronicity! My brain was all: Is this a message from the universe that I should go to Scarborough Fair instead of furniture shopping? Logic interceded and I realized that the saleslady voice in the grocery store was not the universe speaking to me. I have obviously watched too many goofy romantic comedies.
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Oh yeah, so what I was going to say was that I changed my mind about the renaissance festival and am going furniture shopping instead. It's my birthday and I can change my mind. I really really want new furnure.

Long Time No See

I finally decided on something to do for my birthday. We're going to Scarborough Faire. We haven't been in years, and I used to go all the time. And now that I think about, I remember why we haven't been back: It was insanely hot. And muggy with no breeze at all. We felt horrible. It must have been in the 90's.
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The extended forecast is guessing that this Saturday will be sunny and 77°, so it should be a lot more fun. Also that's the same weekend as Fort Worth's Main Street Arts Festival so I'm hoping that might put a dent in the Scarborough Faire crowd.
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I have so many fun memories from there. I'll try to dig out some old pictures this week. I even dressed up a few times. And one year my friend had a booth (shoppe) there with a private upstairs room. That was really cool. Anyway, so that's what I decided to do and I'm really looking forward to it. It's not often you get to drink a cold beer surrounded by Renaissance whimsy and watch a lady in costume playing a hammered dulcimer. Hear, hear!

This Post Is Not About Baseball

Yes it looks like this post is about baseball, but I am just creating a diversion. It's about photography. I am not, nor have ever considered myself to be any type of a photographer. I took one great picture in the early 90's of my daughter and second husband in a park with the St. Louis Arch in the background. It was a really good. I had an 11" by 18" print made and it was in our living room. I gave it to him.
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I believe this is my second best picture. Or maybe it ties with that other one. I think the definition of a good photograph is how much time you spend looking at it. I love a picture that makes you feel or think. When I look at this one I see all the tension. This photo is of a highly publicized BIG MONEY PITCHER throwing his first pitch of the season. I love the implied action, the tension, the colors. I think I did pretty well.