Rainy Sunday

Sunday, September 25, 2011

I slept like a rock last night and had dreams. I seldom remember dreams but when I do they usually are not good ones. I often had the same kind of dreams. Last night in my dreams I was working as a nurse again. I was a very good nurse and when I quit working it was not voluntary. My health would not allow me to continue. Until I quit I had no idea I was burned out on it. Sometimes I think I would have been better off to take some easy job and draw a paycheck but I know after being in critical care, trauma nursing, and dialysis I would be bored to death. In my dreams it always comes back to me that I don't really miss nursing and don't want to go back to it. Weird, huh? I guess it's my own personal reality check.

Today was almost like night. It was so dark the motion detector lights were on. We had thunder and rain most of the day again. The high was in the mid 50s.

The birds were at the feeders in droves. The hummers are still here but I'm sure they must be thinking of leaving.

Hubby and I managed a walk with umbrellas. We didn't really see any wildlife. No turtles for days.

I watched Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Roads Ice Road Truckers tonight. Love them!!

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Working On It

Saturday, September 24, 2011

It rain early in the morning but quit and it was just cloudy and cool the rest of the day.

My son had to work from noon until closing.

Hubby and I headed to my MIL's house and he mowed the lawn while I visited with my MIL's best friend Ruth. She is a treasure and gives me wonderful advice and great tea from her sons book/coffee shop in Wisconsin. I moved my MIL's clothes into a different closet and hubby and I worked in the garage for a while sacking up trash and rearranging things for the rummage sale.

We drove home and went for a walk.

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The Devil's Nails

Friday, September 23, 2011

I didn't get much sleep last night. Hubby grumbled that by the time he gets back from feeding Reek I am always asleep and he's right, I usually am, so I made an effort to stay awake last night and watch some TV with him. At bedtime he ended up stubbing his toe and tore another toe nail off. I wear house shoes but my son and hubby won't. It does little good to lecture them. At any rate the toenail-mangle started a rant about the lack of progress settling his mother's estate. You know how warped men are. One has nothing to do with the other but at any rate I understand his frustration and tried to sooth the savage beast. It was just about as effective as trying to pet a Tasmanian Devil. Taz had no part of it. My window of opportunity to sleep passed and I ended up unable to sleep most of the night.

It was in the upper 40s this morning and I did not want to get up. We are having a lot of fog. I stayed in bed until the last possible moment then had to rush to get breakfast made, Reek fed, and my bath. Hubby helped me get things set up in the pole barn for laundry. My son was off and we did 6 loads.

We also had to clean the 6 pets cages too. Reek and Porkie live alone and are needy and they get cold so I bought Reek a cloth tent for his cage and Porkie a cloth house and they sleep in them. Today they needed washed and they don't like their bags to be taken away so I have to wash them quickly and get them back ASAP. Reek was trying to get in his while I was still hanging it and he was shoving me away with his little foot. LOL.

My son and I ended up vacuuming and cleaning the bath too and then I had my outdoor chores to do and 2 more meals to fix. So I had a full day and I'm wiped out.

For those who asked what new shows we have watched - We watched "Unforgettable" and they lied. I can forget it. LOL. I didn't bond with the characters. I watched "Revenge" and it was better. "Charlie's Angels" - was goofy. "Person of Interest" - hubby and I both liked it - the most of any of the new ones. "Prime Suspect" - I thought it was okay - hubby didn't care for it. And A Gifted Man - it was okay to me. Hubby thought it was hokey.

The sun came out some but we had thunder and rain off and on. The hummers are thinning out. A turtle must have came and ate today but I missed it.

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Vote For Me For Sun God

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Another totally gloomy and chilly day. The turtles don't like the cold and I don't either. No one showed up to eat today. I don't like turtleless days but I am making lemonade out of my lemons. Lemonade is good. Rain fills the pond. I like a full pond.

The meteorologist said that the rain would cross the Mississippi River at around 10 in the morning so I rushed out early at 7:30 to do my chores and it started raining right away. Arggh. LOL. I filled all the feeders and fed the wildlife. Took out the compost. I was lucky I got the trash burned as I was afraid the rain drops would put the fire out. Somehow I managed to catch my hair on fire while burning the trash. Yes, I'm okay. No, I'm not bald. I'm sooooooooooo glad I'm not bald. It might work for Demi Moore but I would look more like Kojak. LOL.

Normally August is a dry month for us as is September. It culminates in our driest month - October. Our area doesn't seem to be following the rules - it's monsoon season here right now. Maybe it's el Niño or la Niña or whatever. All I know is that it's time to take the weather reins away from some Mexican children and give it to a mature American adult, aka me. LOL. I'm ready and willing to be the goddess of weather. I realize thus far that this had been chiefly a job of Zeus and his pals but they are not doing a very good and I'm not satisfied. I want more sun, less humidity, less ice, less snow, less winter, less blast furnace heat, more Spring, etc.

It is so dark, even in the house. I am a sunshine, blue-sky, warm-temp, nice-breeze type of person. I don't like to be cooped up or feel penned in. I don't like wearing a lot of clothes. I'm not even fond of wearing long sleeves and jeans. I hate sweaters, coats, gloves, scarves, hats, boots, overalls, etc. It's the transitional time of year when you can go through all 4 seasons of your wardrobe within a few days. In a past life I can guarantee I was not an Eskimo. I see myself more as wearing a few strategically placed leaves, a loin cloth, or gourds. LOL.

Please don't take the following ramble personally and become peeved at me. If you enjoy these shows I understand. Now that my son and husband are both away from home so much I have been using the TV as my babysitter. It's on for the noise mainly. I'm not into TV much actually. There are not too many shows on that I really like or would take the time to watch. I have gotten into the habit of "watching" ABC soap operas which I consider fairly terrible but my first husband and his brother watched All My Children together at noon years ago and I was curious about it. To be honest the shows are ridiculous but they don't require any commitment and you don't miss anything when you don't see one. They seldom ever have a rerun. I don't like reruns unless it's a killer show like The Andy Griffith Show. I just now got to where I know who most of the people on the soaps are, kind of. Now they are taking 2 of them off. I'm not sure what they will replace them with but it sounds like a cooking show for one. The Chew might be good but I can watch 2 other channels for cooking. I love some cooking shows but when you are on diet/way-of-life, people like Paula Deen and the Neallys seem to interfere with that. LOL. I love Paula Deen but don't need to be thinking about Sticky Buns. I got Thunder Thighs caused by Sticky Buns and worked hard to get rid of them. I don't want any more Thunder Thighs and Sticky Buns. I'm not into the high brow cooking shows where they spend an hour seeing which celebrity chef can serve up a better dessert using groundhog thymus glands. I'm not even sure what the name of the second soap opera they are taking off is - Is it One Life To Live? Granted these are not my favorite programs but I don't want to have to find something new to babysit me. I'm not going to seek out other soap operas, even if there are any. I've heard Katie Couric will be on and I won't be watching her. Boring! I'm not into talk shows. Oprah even bored me. I don't mind Ellen sometimes but I lose interest quickly when she is serious or playing her silly sumo musical chair games and such. I watched Anderson Cooper the other day and found that I really like him when he is with Kathy Griffin and being zany. Not so much when he wants to feature co-joined twins. I'm not into celebrity doctors, most of them need to be on their own couch getting therapy. I don't like game shows. I don't like Maury Povitch and Jerry Springer type shows - I'm not sure what they are classified as. Trash talk? I kind of like travel shows, real estate shows, decorating, court, and forensic shows but they show too many reruns. Basically I'm in a demographic age group that no one cares about. I'm over 49 which is the point at which they want people to just drop dead. Go gentle into the night. LOL. I am making an effort and am watching some of the new shows and so far............not that great. Maybe Charlie's Angels will be good. The new Pan Am show. I'm trying to change................."I'm a woman, but I can change, if I have to, I guess". (Red Green- LOL)

We still have hummingbirds. I gave then some new food today. The birds are already eating a ton. In the summer we just have stragglers coming in and the seeds and suet last a long time with just a few birds at a time showing up. In the winter I have to fill the feeder about every 3 days. Right now there are birds eating all day long just like they do when snow is on the ground. So food must be scarce here already. I have not seen a lot of bugs lately.

One thing I do want to mention today is invasive pests, and I don't mean in-laws, though they would qualify. I'm talking about plants that end up in your environment that are detrimental to the well-being of native species. I know, it still does apply to the old pain-in-the butt in-laws but today I'm chiefly referring to things like mint. Anyone who has a herb garden knows that if you plant mint you had better have a way to contain it. Lemon balm is that way but is so fragrant and pretty that it taking over is not quite as painful as some things. For me the bane of my herb garden has been.........................garlic chives. I would have never knowingly purchased garlic chives. I bought these at the store and they were just labeled chives. I've always grown chives and decided I wanted more. Big mistake. Well, I brought these devils home and planted them and noticed shortly after that these don't look like chives. They were thicker and tougher, had flatter leaves, and did not bunch the same. They also did not smell or taste the same. They had massive invasive roots that I had trouble digging up. I decided to do some research and discovered that they were not actually chives but garlic chives. And they spread everywhere. If you miss one tiny root it's back almost immediately and I want nothing more than to get rid of every last one of them. They are worthless as far as culinary purposes. You could as easily use wild green onions which is exactly what they remind me of and I wonder if this is actually what they are. So I spend a lot of time digging up these mothers with a fork and it's a major pain in the butt. The moral of this story - don't buy garlic chives. They suck!! LOL.

Well, I'm off to be with Bosley and the Angels. LOL.

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Gratitude

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Yesterday I finally got around to going to town to do my shopping and errands. I try to enjoy my trips to town because most weeks it's the only time I leave home. But Money is really tight right now as we are still having to spend all our spare income on my MIL's bills. No choice. So shopping is just another chore - I'm watching every penny. I had $800 in the bank yesterday before grocery shopping. I had to borrow over $2100 from my son to pay for our house insurance and our taxes yesterday. He's a good kid to loan it to us but my husband and I hate it. We have never dipped into our savings and don't want to get started now. As you know I'm a tough old bird and I'm not one to moan and groan and mope and wring my hands but I hope this estate is settled soon. Hubby and I are both sick of it. I desperately need a new washing machine. My husband really needs to be able to go the dentist. Our back porch roof needs replaced. I want to pay my son back ASAP.

Yesterday I went to the court house to pay our taxes, to the insurance office to pay our house insurance, to the newspaper office, to the bank, Aldis, Wal-mart, and Kroger. I didn't waste any money. I seldom do. I made it home before noon.

I still managed to be home in time to see a few turtles yesterday. They were some of the ones who come less often.

I did some gardening too. I spread 2 big bags of dirt in the hostas bed.

We watched a brand new show on TV last night. Hubby and I both felt it was mediocre. Mostly the acting. We did not warm up to the characters.

I was exhausted last night and quickly fell asleep but awakened after only had 3 hours of sleep. Maybe tonight will be better.

The sun was out today. I don't love the summer heat but what I do love about summer is that in my area almost every day in summer is sunny. We don't have a lot of sunny days every year like some areas but the majority of ours are in summer. Spring has plenty of rain and some sun but I love spring anyway as everything is coming back to life. There are things about Fall that I like such as the autumn colors, changing leaves, Halloween, thanksgiving, etc. but I hate the gloomy days and winter is even worse. I need to be rich. I need to be able to escape the gloom and be a snow bird.

Big Boy came early this morning, Grill Shelter Turtle, and a little female turtle also came and ate cantaloupe. S has not been here. I hope she is okay. She likes the strawberries.

Hubby and I are going for long walks every day. We have another chipmunk! I love them. We saw lots of deer today. Yesterday we saw a lot of baby blue racers and a baby green snake. There are a lot of baby toads this year too. And I saw a tiny blue tailed lizard.


I got this off a friend's blog -AMYBELLES -and I really like it. It's how I try to live.

"I am basically a very positive and happy person - laid back is what a lot of people in my life have said about me. I look at the glass half full instead of half empty, and try my best to treat problems as challenges. Sure I get annoyed, depressed and complain about things at times, just like everyone else...that's human nature. I sometimes put myself down and have had to really learn to look at what I can do and what there is about me that's great, instead of focus on what I can't do or haven't done. I have also learned to release my worries and negative feelings pretty quickly and to move on to find happiness again. Something that has really helped me is to show gratitude each day, either mentally or in writing, as I have been doing in my daily blogs. I believe happiness results from focusing on all the little things in our lives that we can be grateful for...they are always there, we just have to find where they are hiding. Happiness does not have to be elation or ecstasy. It can be simply a state of well-being and peacefulness, which is what our normal, daily lives are mostly about. "

www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal.asp?id=AMYBELLES

She goes on to explain all the things she is grateful for and it's a fantastic blog. What am I grateful for? For one thing, for all my wonderful sparkfriends. You keep me sane.

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