I believe that Varmint is smiling. She likes it here. We have a lovely fenced backyard that is perfect for her to enjoy. And yes, she has three legs.
You know how digital cameras (unless you have a good one) take the picture when they darn well feel like it? That’s what happened here.
Sage thinks that this one looks like she’s saying, “Bring it on!” Who knows?
Photo: bradleygee
Yesterday, I heard a soft knock at the door. I opened it to see a large black guy standing there. I figured he must be one of my neighbors.
“Ma’am, I’ve ran out of gas just up the street here,” he said, motioning around the corner to Church Street where I couldn’t see. “Do you have some yardwork I could do so I can run up the store and get some gas?”
“I do need my lawn mowed,” I said, “but I don’t suppose you have a lawn mower with you right now.”
“Naw, but I’ll come back with it if you’ll just give me a few bucks so I can get the gas.”
Still wondering if he was a neighbor, I asked him where he lived.
“Oh, I live over by Lanana Creek, in the Black section.”
When he said that, I got the feeling that when I had stepped out the door I had entered some sort of time portal that had carried me back to the 1950′s. In this house, anything feels possible.
I went into the house, found five dollars, and handed it to him. He promised to come back and mow my yard. Of course he didn’t come back. I didn’t expect him to. The thing that is currently bugging me is that I am wondering if he thought I expected him to. I can just hear it now…”That white bitch thought I was going to mow her damn lawn for a lousy five dollars! Sheeet no…”
Or not.
I do know that there was never a car that was out of gas. I saw him walking down the street today, so there is no car at all, most likely.
I don’t regret giving him the money for two reasons. One, anyone who is desperate enough to come to your door and beg probably needs the money, even if it’s to get drunk. Two, if it ever happens again,with him or anyone else, I can say, “Nope, done been there. No money here for yardwork that doesn’t get done.”
I don’t do many memes anymore, but I really liked this one! Discovered at Fearfully Made. What you do is go over here to make the mosaic. You enter the URLs of photos from Flicker to create it.
Here’s mine.
1. Michelle, 2. Blueberry Bowl, 3. Marathon Dolphins, 4. soft fuchsia, 5. More Johnny Depp…, 6. tea, 7. The Face of Morocco, 8. pick-me-up, 9. The Garden Cottage Bed and Breakfast, 10. The Way Home, 11. End Of The Day, 12. Linguine Grooms Robb
How do you make it? Well, just answer the following questions with your favorite pic from the first page that comes up when you enter your answer into Flickr’s search. If anyone’s wondering, my answer to number 10 was “Sky, Sage”. I love that New Mexico land came up, since I have some that looks about like that. Weird, but it makes sense.
Here are the questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10.What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.
The chiminea has been over at G’s house for the past 2 1/2 years. Yesterday, Sky and I got it and put it in the backyard. It feels just like having it new again.
I had a photo almost exactly like this on the blog I deleted. I’m still kicking myself for that one. Oh well, here it is again.
It was 90 degrees and we had a hot fire going, so we stood around it and roasted marshmallows. Makes sense, right? I did have to burn up some limbs that G. had cut out of a tree. I particularly like this pic of G. and his marshmallow.
The next time I buy a camera, I am not even going to look at how many megapixels it has. Taking candid shots is an impossibility with this one, since it waits about three seconds from the time you point the camera. Well, I guess if I had 10 megapixels and a good optical zoom, I could stand across the street or something. Sage is such a ham.
Sage and G. are going to New York next month. I’m so glad that G. goes on these trips with him every summer. I tried to explain to Sage why I don’t, and ended up saying that I felt like the cat does when she rides in the car. He told me to take some medicine and bring a lot of books. Sigh. Maybe some heroin would do the trick.
Just checking out what all is closed here in town while we repair the damage…
Tyson Foods – Center Processing Plant employee work schedule for Monday. 1st shift evisceration, cut-up & debone will not work. 1st shift blasting, labeling & shipping will work. All 2nd shift employees will work.
So does this mean they’re shipping out the chickens bones, guts and all? And what, exactly, is blasting? I don’t think I want to know.
The best thing on the list? School is out for two days! Yea!
After of day of Hurricane Ike, I can’t begin to describe how happy I was to see that the lights were on at my house as we drove up the street. I was singing and dancing…I was that happy. I really wasn’t looking forward to no electricity. We are some of the few lucky ones. I live a block from downtown, which is probably the reason. Apparently this location has some perks.
After the winds died down, around 5:00, we went driving around to see what havoc Ike had wrought. One of the neighborhoods in the hills got hit pretty hard. Trees were uprooted and snapped off everywhere.
All day, Sage and I sat in front of the windows and watched the trees in the park across the street lose limbs. Sometimes the sound of the limb popping off sounded like a sharp crack of thunder. I was worried about a tree on the left side of the house, so we stayed on the other side of the house all day. I am so thankful that it didn’t fall!
At around three o’clock, we went outside. Sage had a blast playing in the rain. He and a neighbor girl ran around the park and checked out the creek, which fortunately, never got to overflowing.
I didn’t have a shred of anxiety this time–as opposed to Hurricane Rita, which was one big, long, horrible panic attack. Greg helped out with that by suggesting that we go and volunteer at a shelter last night. I took some magazines, yarn and crochet needles with me. Once we were there, I got a lot of the women hooked up (hehe) with yarn and crochet needles, and taught a couple of people how to do it. It made me feel really good to have those interactions. Lots of the people spoke Spanish, so I got to practice. 
When we got back home, I had totally forgotten how worried I was about the hurricane. It definitely got me “out of myself”.
We had FUN during this hurricane. I feel a little guilty about it, but it beat the hell out of being a nervous wreck.
Oh, and speaking of not being nervous–about a hour after a major limb went down, our neighbor was out there with a chainsaw cutting up the pecan wood for his barbecue pit! 70 mph winds and all! Watching him was inspiring, somehow.
Now, here’s to hoping that the school doesn’t get their electricity hooked back up for a few days…
Ike just sounds like a bully name, doesn’t it?
Anyway, we’re right in his path. Hopefully, he will weaken to a tropical storm before he gets to us, but right now they’re saying we’ll have hurricane force winds. Last time this happened, during Rita, it shut the town down for a week, because we ran out of gas (evacuees from Houston) and didn’t get our electricity back on for several days.
Sadly, it is almost a sure thing that the electric is going to go. It is all the trees we have around here. They fall on the lines. They also fall on houses. My house is surrounded by trees, one of which is my neighbor’s. That tree is sickly and very large. So…we will be staying at my in-laws again.
I hate storms like this. I hate anything that makes me feel trapped. That’s why I don’t like driving in the country–I feel trapped away from “help”. Save me from my own mind and its ridiculous imagination!
So if I am not blogging for a while, most likely it is because there is no electricity. I’ll be rubbing ice cubes on my body instead…
Best tracking site on the internet: Stormpulse.
I know it is the “poverty mindset”. I know it. And I’m trying not to be too angry. Still, it upsets me.
Yesterday, when I went over to J’s house, the cable was connected again. She told me that it cost $139 to get it hooked up.
I ended up taking three of the kiddos home with me yesterday. They couldn’t wait to leave the house because they were hungry. The food stamp card (EBT) comes on the 9th, and there was nothing left to eat in the house.
But, they have cable.
This is not a new discovery. In Greg’s neighborhood, I once saw a house with an orange outside extension cord running in the window because the people didn’t have electricity. You could see the glow of the television from the window.
My students cannot comprehend that I don’t have cable. When I tell them, they look at me like I am an alien. I’m not the only teacher without it, either. There’s a couple of other teachers who don’t have it, because they can’t afford it. You know, priorities. I’ll take the Internet any day over $80 of crap that is going to rot Sage’s mind.
I am coming off as holier than thou. Sorry. I do get Netflix, and am currently using it to watch all episodes of The Wire, as well as order appropriate movies for Sage.
I ended up sending a bag of food home with the kids when I dropped them off last night. I thought, “I am so enabling this.” What to do….?
After an entire day with four kids, I was absolutely exhausted. I DO get why mom sits on her butt and eats Oreos, I really do. As much as I hate to say it, I think I might do the same out of being totally and completely overwhelmed. I’m embarrassed, having walked only half a mile in the other woman’s shoes and having become tired.
Maybe the cable is saving her from total insanity. Who knows?
I have to tell you guys that I really appreciate your comments. Such good tips, shared experiences and encouragement! Although yall really do give me too much credit. You see, Emma hit the nail on the head when she said this is indicative of a midlife crisis, even though she was just kidding.
The thing is, I sit here and think of myself as a person who cares about what goes on in the world, a Christian, even, and all I have been doing is reading provocative articles about the state of the world and sitting on my butt. In other words, I have not felt “in purpose”. So it’s time to walk to talk, or at least do more than read about the problems our society has. That’s all.
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The thing that’s really kicking my butt right now is Sky leaving. I’ve managed to ignore this fact by becoming immersed in school starting and all, but last night it hit me that I only have FOUR more days of him living here–in this house, in this town, in this state. I realized this after a rousing hour long discussion about whether society would be better or worse off without the level of technology we currently have.
I enjoy talking to him so much. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that of all the people I know, he is the one who is most on my wavelength spiritually and intellectually. I am thankful that we had the opportunity to get to this point, since we had a rough couple of years.
I tell myself that it is time to focus on Sage. He will miss his big brother, who is the person he looks up to most in the world. There has never been sibling rivalry between them. It has always been good. But big brothers move out. It’s just the way it is.
Those of you who deal with your big children moving away…how do you deal with the pain?
