What a week

It's been another brutal one folks. I was so burned out yesterday, I didn't blog a word over five blogs. I didn't answer one email. Hell, I didn't even read my email and I slept for ten hours last night. I just have to crawl through today and I'm looking at a few days off though.

Part of the reason I've been stressed is I was nursemaiding a lost puppy for the last couple of days. I don't have time to get into how we came into possession of the little guy but it was take him in or watch him get creamed by the passing traffic, so take him in we did.

He was sweetie. A perky little Jack Russell terrier and it was hard to believe he wasn't just lost from someone in the neighborhood. But we postered and knocked on doors and put out the word in various ways and no one came looking for him. We couldn't keep him so we finally called the dog control officer yesterday. I have to admit a little twinge when I handed him over but the dog guy told me doubted the pup would even make it to the regional pound before someone adopted him. It appears he's probably a purebred and puppies are easy to place. Hope he gets a good home.

Meanwhile, the weather has been cold in the last couple of days (for here) but the daffodils are really cheering. They're blooming in great swaths in the yards and on the roadsides. I saw my first crocus a couple of days ago and I'm betting the first violets are already showing up at my old place although I haven't seen any around the McCompound. The geese are on the move too, so take heart my northern friends. I hear you have a lot of snow up there, but spring really is on its way.

Date Line

I had dinner with my friend John last night. I haven't seen him in months. It's hard for me to comprehend he's dying. He still looks healthier than me. Anyway, it was nice to see him. Good to get out of the house. We had a nice meal.

We always end up at the same place, the Mexican joint downtown. There aren't that many choices and I like it. The food isn't great but it's dependably edible. It kind of reminds me of the old Taco Villa back in lovely downtown Noho.

Meanwhile, my silly pink Christmas cactus, after putting on a big show at Thanksgiving has decided to bloom again for Easter I guess. It's setting buds. That plant has astounded me since the day I picked up that one little branch on the stairs in Thornes Market. I was surprised when that twig set roots and it's rewarded my benign semi-neglect with flowers a couple of times a year ever since.

View from the deck


I took this shot a couple of days ago. Yesterday, I woke up to an ice storm of sorts. It didn't stick to the road but my car was covered in ice. It took longer to remember where my ice scraper was than it did to break up the ice enough to let the wipers get rid of it. The car wasn't even warm yet when I drove off. The trees iced over too but the flowers weren't bothered by the momentary blast of cold. I enjoyed a even more riotous explosion of pink while sitting on the deck this afternoon. In just a sweater. Definitely the upside of living in the south.

I'm really glad I have this deck otherwise I'd probably never get any fresh air except for taking the trash out, which is a little bit of a hike. Too much of my life resembles this cartoon and the trouble is no matter how much time you spend, you don't change too many minds. Better to watch the moon rise.

I took this shot in late December but I don't think I ever posted it. It in no way conveys how huge it looked hanging there over the clubhouse.

Downhill Tangerine


I ran across this photo when I was looking for something else and I can't remember if I ever posted it. On the far right is my old friend Billy Michael who I haven't seen since 1969. Billy was the lead singer in the first band I ever hung out with, yeah, The Downhill Tangerine. They were a great band and got a lot of gigs for a high school group. My boyfriend, Doc, was their roadie. My best friend Marleen was dating the drummer.

We spent most of our time hanging around Billy's house. We practiced there and smoked pot out in the shed/clubhouse in the back yard. Billy's parents were the coolest. Fat Will and Dolores the movie star. She really was a movie star once, or maybe you would call her a starlet but she was gorgeous and even though they knew we were getting high in the shed, they pretended not to notice. Billy is still a musician and lives on the same street. He is active in local politics which I suppose is what the photo is about. I forget the caption.

I found this photo a long time ago in the Danbury News Times reader's pix section. It's actually not that bad a newspaper in terms of news, but they have the world's worst reader's 'forum.' Oddly, I just got an email from the webmaster asking me to rejoin. I had quit going there a long time ago out of disgust. But the email claimed they had cleaned the place up and banned the egregious posters, so I went over to check it out.

What a joke. The worst offender is not only still there but is so cozy with the webmaster that reading their convos in the threads might lead one to believe they're having an affair on the side. I mean they insituted 26 rules or something and it didn't take 30 seconds to find a comment by this woman that violated at least six of them, yet she's trading simley faces with the webguy in the very next thread. Furthermore, it appears they cleaned up the place by banning the remaining leftwingers because the half dozen neo-con borgs that took the place over don't care to hear that liberal talk, according to the webmaster's apparent paramour.

I was going to leave a cranky post, but why bother? I gave up on trying to communicate with the favored elite cretins months ago and their responses are so predictable, even a fight wouldn't be interesting. Besides, I would no doubt be banned in short order. Might as well skip the middleman and ban myself.

Oh and speaking of pix, check out my new heartthrob's latest. [Yes sis, he's too young for me but our politics are so compatible.]

Nature's car wash

When I lived in New England they used to call the spring snow poor man's fertilizer. I forget why. It had something to do with the particulate matter in the snow at that time of year.

It would seem spring snow in the south is a lazy man's carwash. My car has been in bad need of a wash for a couple of months. I haven't done it since the weather turned cold because I usually use the do it yourself station. I was planning to do a run through the drivethrough today but I noticed when I went to the store last night that the car was sparkling clean.

Weird. We've had several rain storms that left it dirtier rather than cleaner, but apparently when the snow melted off it yesterday, it took all the dirt with it. Even the caked on mud along the footrail under the doors. And the windows are crystal clear. Glad I waited now.

Silly stuff

Thanks to Irma for sending me this one.

What's the difference between a northern fairytale and a southern fairytale? A northern fairytale begins "Once upon a time ..." -A southern fairytale begins "Y'all ain't gonna believe this shit....

That's really true.

Related to nothing, when free email accounts used to limit your storage space, I used to routinely delete email. Now that they give you enough storage to last forever, I now have 13,343 unread emails between two accounts. That doesn't include the emails I read and don't delete because I want to keep them for future reference. I have about 3,000 of those.

I'll probably never read all those emails, but I'm unlikely to delete them either. I'm too sentimental to throw anything away that has meaning to me, even if it has no intrinsic value.

Happy Valentine's Day


This is my valentine from my little three year old friend. I love you all dearly and I hope you all get some valentine treats that are as great as this.

I saw my first daffodils blooming yesterday. The tree just outside my deck started busting out in pink flowers a couple of days ago. This morning, I woke up to an inch of snow on the ground and judging by the sliding going on by the passing dogwalkers, icy sidewalks.

It's all melted now.

What a week....

It was brutal folks. I was so tired by Friday that I started really spacing out. [Yeah, yeah, hold the hippie jokes].

I used to be notorious for being really late for everything. Mostly because I couldn't find my keys or my glasses or some other vital item necessary for leaving the house. So I developed a sort of system that I follow rather faithfully. I always put the must have items in the same place. Most of the time. Not when I'm tired.

I lost my cell phone on Friday. I clearly remembered having it in my pocket earlier but it wasn't there or in my little bag, where I always keep it. I started freaking out because I don't pay for that phone, my family does and it would a huge hassle to deal with a lost one.

I'm driving home and running through my mind on where the hell it could be. I stopped by the park where I last remembered holding it and tromped around in the dark for fifteen minutes figuring I'd feel it if I stepped on it in the dead leaves where I parked the car. No luck. I was so obsessed I may have cut off a speeding car on my last turn before I got to the McCompound. I never noticed it, until the bugger passed me in a roar. Actually, I'm pretty sure I didn't cut him off, but he was going fast and I'm glad he could pass because he looked drunk, weaving all over the road at 80 mph in a 35 zone. If there was oncoming traffic he probably would have rear-ended me.

So I get home and I take my little bag out of the big satchel I carry and there's the phone. In plain sight. Where it wasn't when I looked before I left the family compound. Weird.

Yesterday wasn't much better. I went to the grocery and managed to lose my credit card. It was uncanny. I had the card and the store card in my hand. The clerk had to run the store card twice so it threw me off and when I went to pay the credit card wasn't in my hand anymore. I looked in my pocket. That's I usually put it. Not there. I looked in the wallet. The second likely place. Not there. I ended up paying with an alternate card and I'm standing there at the doorway going through my purse and the card is just gone.

Now the store is just about empty. There was nobody anywhere near me and I finally searched around the cashout and made the clerk look through the papers on top to see if had slipped out of my hand. I hung around for fifteen minutes literally emptying my wallet, purse and pockets onto the counter -- twice. No card. It's like it disappeared into thin air.

I get home and go through the whole routine again. Nothing. I'm about ready to call and cancel the card when in a flash of inspiration I checked the one place that I never thought it would be. There it was in the change pouch in my wallet. I didn't think it would even fit in there and have no recollection of putting it there in the 10 seconds it took me to lose it. Crazy. I think these guys were screwing around with me.

On a brighter note, I found a complete set of 100% cotton sheets -- that's including two pillowcases -- for only 25 bucks this week at the off price store. I don't know what possessed me to look. Their selection on sheets is usually awful and they usually don't have anything that's all cotton. The cheapest I've seen that same set was for 40 bucks on overstock.com and I would have had to pay shipping. I love a bargain.

And even sweeter, I'm a semi-regular at a local Panera Bread. I'm a terrible customer really. I spend five bucks on coffee, juice and a bagel and hang around for three hours goofing on their excellent wifi. For some reason, they like me. I stopped by to pick up just a juice the other day and the cashier slipped me a free breakfast quiche. I had it for lunch. It was really good. I'd recommend it if you ever find yourself stuck at a Panera. Small but filling.

[cartoon thanks to Catfish]

Life is funny, but it's not a joke

I haven't even looked at this blog in days. It's a crazy time right now between my concern for my family and the oddities of my life in general. I was voted Moonbat of the Day at Little Green Footballs and a lot of other big bloggers took the opportunity to point out how stupid I am. I was busy defending myself in comments for a whole day and a half against their misrepresentations of my remarks. That's probably the most interesting thing that happened to me.

On a brighter note, I hear everyone is experiencing a warming trend in the weather. We're supposed to get close to 70 degrees today. Hope it doesn't rain just this one day. It would be nice to get outside and the ground is already muddy from the last rain. The mud here looks just like dogshit and it stains forever.

It's going to be a tough week so I'm not going to predict my posting here. I was going to post this last night and fell asleep from sheer exhaustion at 8:30. I figure I'll readjust to the long hours and find more energy along about on Wednesday. Hope you're all doing better than me.