Reading

I hate Mary Higgins Clark.

Last night I started reading her latest book, The Shadow of your Smile. I stopped only beause I was getting tired. This morning I thought I'd read a little while having breakfast. BIG MISTAKE. I spent the rest of the day reading.

I should have known better. I've read her books before and I get so into them that I truly can't put them down.

I started the day with good intentions. I was going to walk, then put the meat I bought yesterday in the freezer, freeze some blueberries and strawberries that I also bought. I had bananas ripening on the counter, just begging to be baked into banana bread. There was laundry and ironing just waiting for me.

Alas, nothing got done. I spent the entire day reading. I finished the book. I wonder how many other do-nothing days Mary Higgins Clark has caused.

Now you can see why I say that I hate her. I mean that in a very loving way. I wonder when her next book will be available.

The Influence of my Mother

Back on Mother's Day I wrote about the men in my life who influenced my do-it-yourselfness. Today, for Father' Day I'm going to tell you a little about my mother and how she influenced me. And it all relates to the patio furniture I also wrote about on Mother's Day.

A friend of mine liked my set and the price so much, she ordered a set of her own. Then she asked me to put it together. Everything went smoothly, one chair and two hassocks went together easily. Then it came to the last chair.

I just couldn't get the bolt through the hole, it kept going in crooked. I checked and saw that there was a very small piece of metal getting in the way. My friend was going to look into returning the one chair.

Then I remembered my mother. Whenever she was faced with an obstacle, she would say, "Nothing says no to me". Then she would keep working for a solution until she found one.
I followed her example and kept working. I got my tools together and just worked on that little piece of metal until it fell off.

The rest of the assembly went smoothly and my friend was able to sit outside on her new chair and read her book.

Thank you mom.

It's so nice to come home and be greeted at the door. Lately, Crash has gotten into the habit of running to the door when I come home. I've been thinking about her actions, and it seems that she is having an identity problem.

She sits at my feet whenever I eat. If I ignore her, she gently reminds me that she's there by tapping my knee and showing her empty mouth. She actually begs for food. She also follows me all around the house and even sits next to me on the couch when she takes a nap. When I take my shower in the morning, she sits by the shower until I get out and start drying myself. It's almost as if she stays by me in case I fall, although I don't know what she could do.

All of this behavior is normal for a dog, but as we all know, Crash is a cat.
Funny, I always thought that cats were aloof and independent. Do you think I should have a little chat and remind her that she is a cat and not a dog?

Clean Up the Oil

I've just finished watching Huckabee. He spent the whole hour with his guests who had plans or formulas for cleaning the oil in the Gulf.

These ideas were very effective in the demonstrations and their developers have given their ideas to the president and BP. Many have just been ignored. I guess they don't have the "right" credentials.

It's very sad that there is so much regulation that these people can't be turned loose in the Gulf. After all, they can't do much more damage than has already been done. There are some towns down south that have taken things into their own hands and been successful.

It's time for the people to take charge and use every available means to clean the Gulf. We've waited too long for those in leadership positions to take the lead. Use hay, special polymers or even hair to clean the water.

A Good Day Gone Bad

Today started out as a wonderful day. I got up early, checked my email and blogs. Then I shut down my PC (BIG mistake) and walked for a mile.

After my walk I turned on my PC to start my German lesson. That was the start of my problems. It couldn't connect to Windows. That was the start of the insanity. You know the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I don't remember how many times I tried restarting. Somehow I expected it would heal after a few hours rest. Didn't happen.

Fortunately my son is VERY good to me. Last Christmas he gave me a new laptop so I have not been completely transported back to the mid-20th century. BUT, I can't access my public folders with ALL my information in them - To Do list, budgets, old mail, etc.

Last night I started to plan my summer. I want to take a few short road trips so I printed 4 months worth of calendars. At least I know what I'll be doing and won't miss anything.

Maybe I'll go and try to restart my computer.

Walking

On Monday, I decided that I simply had to get back to walking. I was determined. But first, I went to help a friend assemble her patio furniture - 2 chairs and 2 hassocks. Since this was the same as my set, I thought it would be easy.

For some reason it wasn't. There I was crawling around on the floor, lifting pieces, tightening nuts and bolts, etc. I never got around to walking. I had been there for 4 hours and couldn't finish one chair. The hole for the bolt was not completely open. I knew I'd need some tools. When I woke up on Tuesday, I was so sore. Muscles that I didn't know I had ached. It got worse if I sat still for too long, and I had to sit in the clubhouse for 3 hours. Yesterday was no better, I was still stiff.

This morning, it was pleasantly cool so I decided to just get out there and walk. I just wandered around the neighborhood for 20 minutes. Of course, being the numbers person that I am, I had to find out just how far I had gone. So, I got in the car and checked the mileage. I was very pleased to see that I had walked 1.3 miles at an average speed of just over 4 miles/hr. That's almost the speed I had 10 years ago.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a nice day and I can go out again, this time with another route.

D-Day

Today is June 8, 2010. It is 66 years and 2 days since D-Day and yet, it seems to have been forgotten by the media, the president, all other politicians, even Google.

Thinking that I might have missed some notice of the day, I checked the date (June 6, 2010) with Google. I went through three pages and saw no mention of the day or of any commemorative events. Shameful.

Whether we like it or not, we have a history of stopping the bad guys and helping those in need. The people who died in the invasions at Normandy and Omaha Beach should have been remembered. I know we can't pray for them (in public anyway), but some mention should have been made of their sacrifice and their family's loss.

Tradition

Since I was a teenager, my family always gathered to watch the various races of the Triple Crown. This year, for some reason, I forgot about the Derby and Preakness. BUT, today I remembered the Belmont.

I hadn't followed any of the horses. I'm not a betting person so the odds didn't mean anything. I have a very scientific system for picking a horse. What does the name say to me? As they were going through the horses and their odds, I heard Drosselmeyer. I immediately thought of The Nutcracker. That was it. My second choice was First Dude. After all, if you're not betting, there's no limit on your picks.

There I was, sitting alone in the living room, not even the cats were near. I heard the call - Drosselmeyer in 7th, then 5th. Then I really got excited. I'm so glad the windows were closed because I sat there cheering and yelling. I even applauded the win.

I'm happy to report that sanity returned and I'm back to normal. At least until the Yankees make it to the Series again.

The Garden

I never give up. I'm determined to grow herbs again this year. I've vowed to harvest before the plants go to seed. I'm so looking forward to pesto, maybe I'll even make some sauce and freeze it.

I have basil


rosemary, parsley, cilantro and oregano. They're not all pictured here. So far they're growing well. While I was out watering them this evening, one of my neighbors came by. She was about to offer me some basil but saw that I have some. She grows her herbs from seed, I on the other hand buy small plants.

My strawberries have lots of blossoms. Hopefully, they'll ripen all at the same time so I can have a nice bowl of berries.

I can't wait for harvest time.

The Sublety of Cats

Sometimes, cats can be so subtle. This morning as I was going about the house, I saw Crash curled up by the front door. She was blocking it. I guess she was trying to tell me that I'm going out too much and she was going to stop me.


Then I saw Burnie. I guess he doesn't like the air conditioner. He had crawled into and was laying on the master unit for the entertainment center. It must be very warm there because he likes to curl up in there for a nap.

I must be keeping the room temperature too low for his comfort, even though I like it cool/cold.

Writing

I know this is very pretentious. I think I have writer's block. It's been very hard for me to think of something to say here, especially since I'm trying to be more positive, to stop complaining about the administration in Washington and the state of the country in general. It's not easy.

At first I thought that the novelty of blogging was wearing off, but then I'm starting to have trouble with the creative writing group. For the last meeting I couldn't think of anything to write until the morning of the meeting. For tomorrow's meeting I couldn't think of anything either.

Our suggested topic is an Aha Moment. Finally, a little while ago I had an idea and was able to put 300 words together to describe the moment I realized that it's OK to go somewhere and do something alone.

Of course I didn't come to this realization by myself. I had been pushing my son to attend a cooking event with me. He finally agreed, but asked what would be wrong with going alone. Since that day, I've become more comfortable doing things and going places as a solo. Maybe too comfortable.

Back to my original problem. Have you ever found yourself with nothing to say?