Celebrating

Alex has gained a half a pound in 2 weeks. That is good news. He is up to 5.6 pounds. He even looks happy. Happy with no teeth.

Wondering

Is this lion going to eat me?

Me watching a lion on the Seregeti plain.

Wildlife

There are signs of spring everywhere. I went to trim bushes around the house and I discover a robin nesting in a holly bush. Me and I’ll say she kind of startled each other. I agreed to give her a wide birth for the next few weeks.
I was cleaning my bicycle car also. The bushes are still flowering which means they are full of bumble bees. I made a deal with them; I leave you alone and you leave me alone. It seems to be working.
Stoopid (I know) woodpecker. There is a woodpecker who has not figured out that the trim on the house is aluminum. Every few days you hear rat-tat-tat-tat and it shakes you to the bone. I think I have seen the culprit at the bird feeder. I have to wonder about this one….
Squirrels. They are digging up all the mulch around the house. I have to level it off every few days. Another funny thing is watching a squirrel running with a hamburger bun in it’s mouth. I will throw out old bread, buns, tortillas into the yard for the wild life instead of putting it in the trash. I had to smile watching this squirrel bounding through the yard with a hamburger bun in it’s mouth. It was a funny sight to see.

Adventures in lawnmowing

Sheer terror and fear that drains the blood out of you. Doesn’t sound much like lawn mowing does it? It is. After 3 days of rain we get a nice, sunny dry day before another day of rain. I had decided to mow the lawn because it was looking kind of bad for tomorrow. All my neighbors had the same idea so here we all are, out doing yard work except for me, it didn’t start that way.

Sheer fear. I went out to get the lawnmower out of the shed. There is a flowering tree out back right above the shed and it is in full bloom. I opened the door and noticed a loud hum above my head so I looked up and saw that the tree was full of honeybees. The blood drained from me. My first thought was “Where is my Epipen?” I remembered I keep it with my helmet and I have told “da wif” where the other ones are. I did get the lawnmower out and then brought it around front to “da wif’s” car where she has a plug in pump for tires. I got the tires all pumped up and everything put away so it was time to start mowing…

Sheer terror. I had left it in gear when I turned the lawnmower off, so when I pulled the starter line, it leaped away from me so here I was trying to turn it off, trying to turn it away from “da wif’s” car and other things in the yard. I managed to turn it off, get my wit about me and then mowed the lawn. I wonder what it looks like to be in sheer terror.
I am done mowing, now I smell like onions…..

Buzzing about

Spring. It is in the air and all over everything too. Cars are yellow. We are sneezing quite frequently. Bees are about. Their buzzing is loud, or I thought. Lots of bumble bees out front and I thought the buzzing was them. Then is heard a shift in the drone and realized it was the race cars again. Come on Monday morning, so I can be through with another race weekend.... Lots of bumble bees out front. Here is one!

They don't get it

Remember from the Wizard of Oz?
Lion, tigers and bears oh my!
I think the people today are saying;
Iraq, elections, economy, oh my!
When I heard Darth Cheney's comments on the death toll in Iraq I was shocked,
"You regret every casualty, every loss," he said. "The president is the one that has to make that decision to send young men and women into harm's way. It never gets any easier."

Duh, Why did you send them in the first place?
Money?? Power? Oil?

You missed the whole point of serving the people. Not for you own good but for the good of all people.

Funeral

A funeral on Holy Saturday. The church was packed and the service went on for over two hours. The music was great and the preaching touched me. Life in a small community reaches out and touches you sometimes. Rest in peace Lady Di.

Up to my ears

That is how I feel now. So much to do, prioritize and then get back to it. Must make it past Sunday........

Seasons Change

had to mow the lawn this week. My wife thought I was nuts. There are flowers everywhere. I am sneezing like crazy. There is noise. It sounds like racecars. Not like I live 5 miles from the racetrack but I do. We can still hear them. The local newspaper is showing all these drivers who I have no idea who they are. The big race here is on the 30th. The nuts will be in town and all the advertisements will be out.

Sightings at a funeral

Delivery to a cemetery!

I just had a funeral service for a wonderful man in my community. It was bright but chilly and the birds were singing. The people were telling me about the birds they saw and the others they heard during the service.

Me and the funeral directors had a different view. Dominos Pizza making a delivery into the cemetery during the service. We (the persons facing the street) were trying to figure out who ordered pizza.
A last wish?
A really late delivery?

Easter Thoughts

Flowers everywhere. Signs of new life. Life emerging from the ground.

Death and Life? Symbols? What does it mean.

Getting into the Bible belt has really gotten to me. Going to my least favorite big box store,

You know the one; the ones that sucks the small businesses out of the economy and provided low paying jobs without a whole lot of benefits. (A Social sermon for another day)

I am walking by and what do I see? Easter Baskets. Not the kind you would normally see but ones with toys in it Still not catching on? Toys that are not about the Easter Message. How about Army Men and a Tank for your child in their Easter Basket. I felt anger at their secular approach to the whole reason for the Christian Church. New Life. Light that beats death. Life that is abundant. Not this:

Copy Cat

Last cat post for a while. Me and my copier have a love/hate relationship. I love to hate it and it gets back at me. Just wait, when you have 5 minutes and need 30 copies of something when you got to be there, it will start jamming.


I see Alex has started seeing if there are any little elves in it.

Sneaking up on Boo Radley

This has nothing to do with:
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/tkm/CHR.htm
but it has to do with playing some lined out music that I had recorded from a Primative Baptist Choir. It is similar to a bagpipe the way the people slide into notes and the leader gives a line the people sing and while they are singing he give another line.

I was playing some and it spooked Alex. He hid for more than 2 hours. I wonder if he is scared of bagpipes.

Anointed or Owned?

Goose has been a trip recently. Whenever the sunspot goes away, he comes to the room we are in, meows at us then bids us to follow. We have this game we call "Chase Chase". He always initiates it by coming to us and meowing, we follow and chase him from room to room. This can go on for 5 to 10 minutes and all over the house with Goose tearing from room to room. The funny part is, it is so easy to sneak up on a deaf cat.

When he is ready, he will run to the bed and invite us to come and join him. He usually then, licks our forehead, headbutts us, and purrs really loud. It is an anointing by Goose. I also know he owns us. Not bad to be owned by a cat who 6 years ago would run from me.(We adopted hm then)

Goose left - Alex right

Screaming

Another leak. Another leaky roof. I have to wonder about things around here with all the leaking roofs. Maybe it is me screaming at the process in general. Silent Prayer.

Ice, Ice Baby

How unpoetic..... A vanilla ice rap song. I am content with my coffee and things I need to do today. No hurry. No worry. Peace, Quiet. Love.
Thinking about one of those Caribbean cruises I have been on.

Another Mystery – Solved!

I have been waking to a light being on in the bedroom and I did not turn it on. I come home and the lamp is on and I know it was off. We have touch lamps on nightstands that make life easy when we turn them on or off when we need light. To have them come on by themselves had me wondering.
I know whenever we had a power flux, they might come on but it was just happening too frequently so I thought they were failing.
I was in there yesterday and the phone rang and the light came on. I found out the why!!!
It appears when I moved some power cords I had crossed the phone line over the power cord. EM interference. I thought I had retired from this kind of stuff.
At least I don’t have the lamps going on anymore….

Lunch Buddy

I was asked to be a lunch buddy at one of the local elementary schools. I signed up, went through the mandatory background checks, then said I am available to anyone that needs a buddy. I was assigned a 3rd grader. This has been so much fun because I go in every few weeks and sit down at tables about half human size and eat fine dining, elementary school style. I also see kids from the local churches and neighborhoods that know me. It is so funny to see the smiles and waves from all of the kids. Well today, I had lunch with my “Honor roll lunch buddy” as I called him. He smiled and it was good to see him start to relax. I just love seeing all the smiles and hearing the stories from them. The kids in trouble for break dancing during PE. The kids having a silent lunch for talking out of turn. The strange things you can do with ketchup. I think this is a break from the past two weeks I have had. Seeing young ones is always a treat.

Excited

I was working last night on stuff and I kept hearing strange noises on the roof. I went out and found out it was sleeting, freezing rain and snowing. Sweetie has 1 inch of snow for her B'Day. I was exited enough to call out in German to her. Shades of getting snowed on in Munich and Salzburg. Those are good memories. 5 Years ago in Arlington when MIL got stuck with us for 5 days because of the blizzard....... you decide.

12:59 AM

I woke up again this morning soaked and hot but this time I had the Goose on me. He was asleep on my chest. I moved him and Alex moved in for his purr time. Goose them proceeded to stomp me and did circles over my head and around me. I do not think I slept well last night.

So here is Goose in a face plant on the bed.

Don't we all wish we could sleep this well?