Sunday, March 28, 2010

A Beautiful Sunday

Except for the allergy attack, probably due to mold, probably due to lots of rain followed by sunny days. I'm on my second generic version of Benedryl®. I'll give it an hour then, if there's no improvement, I'll take another. It makes me sleepy, which just adds to the chronic fatigue from which I already suffer.  So there will be no enjoying this beautiful Sunday. Well, a little bit of enjoying it, but nothing big. No going out and doing something entertaining and/or productive. (I still need to mow the lawn.)

I talked with my mom this morning. That's always nice. She's doing okay with a couple of minor problems. She says she's started sleeping late - not intentionally. I suggested that she's now making up for 80 or so years of not being able to sleep late. I warned her that, now that President Obama has got his health care passed, she'd better look out for the death panels.

An acquaintance of mine has written a book. The trailer looks pretty good. I hope the book is as good because I plan to read a copy. It's available for the Kindle! Here's a link where you can learn more. The book is called "Mousetrapped."

Benedryl and mucus are affecting my brain, so I'm stopping here.

Update: 45 minutes later and I've taken my 3rd Benedryl

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Hummingbirds are here!

After my last post I looked out the window in time to see two hummingbirds fighting over the feeder. Yay! Unfortunately, I haven't seen them since. I guess I need to look out the window more.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

I tried. I really did.

I tried to mow the lawn today. It's a beautiful sunny day - 80 degrees outside. I found some clean shorts and put them on, went out to the shed, dragged out the lawnmower. There was a little gas in the tank. Probably enough to mow one lawn. I added some STP and some oil, since the dipstick showed none! Left the mower in the sun for a bit to warm up. Then I tried to start it. Several times. No luck. Eventually I decided to try it one last time and, if it didn't start, I'd give up. I did. It didn't. So I did.

Because I was outside and dressed to do some sort of outdoor work, I decided to prune the rose bush. I didn't prune it last year and it got to be at least eight or nine feet tall. Really! It's a very healthy rosebush. (The Guinness record for tallest rosebush is 13 feet 3 inches (4.03 meters) tall.)

I also made the neighbors happy, I'm sure, by cleaning up the "box" of aluminum cans that have been on my driveway for several months. I put "box" in quotes because the box broke down some time ago due to rain and other unfriendly (to boxes) weather. So the cans weren't quite boxed up like they were when I first put them out there. They were messy. An eyesore, for sure, even though no one complained. (They were mostly hidden by my car, when it was in the driveway.) Today I gathered them in a large trash bag and put them in the back of the car. Since none of you have bothered donating (using the convenient button in the right hand column on this page), I'm forced to collect and sell aluminum cans to supplement my income. Shame on you! ;-)

So I sort of did all I could do without a lawn mower. I suppose I'll find "how to tune up your lawn mower" on the web somewhere and see what I can do. I'm pretty handy.

Rosie and Celie went out with me for awhile. Rosie seemed to really enjoy it. She loves going out front. She's very good about staying close. Celie, on the other hand, has to be closely watched or she'll end up a couple yards (houses) away, pooping on the neighbor's lawn. If you guys would donate some money (using the convenient button in the right hand column on this page) I could afford to build a cute white, picket fence so I didn't have to worry about the dogs leaving the yard.

Speaking of outside and nice weather, I have yet to see a single hummingbird this spring. They usually show up by the 15th of March. I've had the feeder up since the 8th. Of course, I might just have not been looking while they were at the feeder, but I don't think so. I'm disappointed. I know they're in the neighborhood because I've been watching the migration map.

I guess that's all for now. Later.

Friday, March 19, 2010

My Personal Website. HELP!

I've always known that I wanted to have a personal website, and I have had one for quite a few years. But I've never really been completely happy with it. Mostly I just have some pages devoted to me - who I am, where I've been, what I think, etc. - and then some links to other sites - my blog, my facebook page, my twitter page, etc. On my last version I had a poem that someone wrote for me in 1974 about beer and a moose.

So I thought I'd ask the three or four of you who read my blog for ideas. What sort of information should I have on my personal website? Should I stick with the who, where, and what sort of format? Or should I do something else?

I've had fancy and I've had minimalist. Which do you prefer?

That's all I wanted to ask. Your comments are desired. Thanks.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Got out of the house yesterday.

Not a big adventure, but it got me out of the house, nevertheless. A friend, Odassa, was going to Waxahachie for an appointment with her optometrist. She was having her eyes dilated, and wanted someone to drive her home. So I went. She had been told that it was "about" a 1-1/2 hour drive, but it took two hours. And we left a little late, so she was late to her appointment. It didn't make any difference, though. It just made the ride up a little more, um, interesting! She had her exam while I and her great-grandson, Christopher, waited in the waiting room. (Her great-grandson is 16 and can drive, but Odassa said no!) On the way back we stopped for Church's Chicken, which tasted pretty good. I'd never had it before. We waited until we got home to eat the chicken. I was surprised to find out that most Church's Chicken restaurants don't have an eat-in facility.

I got home just in time to watch both episodes of the best TV show ever, Lost. And again, I wasn't disappointed. It's almost over. Once it is, I'm going to watch it all over again from the beginning. I'll bet I'm not the only one!

Another Favorite Scripture

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. ~ James 1:19, NLT

Monday, March 15, 2010

Rosie Update, and More

Rosie is doing fine. She has accepted the fact that she gets two shots a day, and when I show her the needle she actually comes to me for the shot. I try to remember to give her the shot while she's eating, whenever that's possible. That distracts her from the tiny prick of the needle. I know it doesn't hurt much, but it does hurt a little. I know this because she flinches just a bit whenever I give her the injections. She's not yet "regulated" (I think that's the word they used), which means we still don't know the exact dose of insulin that she needs. There are a couple reasons for that. She has to spend the day at the vet's office so they can check her blood sugar levels every two hours or so. They charge me $57 each time this happens. So far it has taken four days of this to regulate her dose, and today she has to go in again. It gets damned expensive. Once she is regulated, or her dosage is regulated - whatever - she won't have to go in anymore except for once every six months or so (if I understood correctly). Hopefully they'll get her regulated soon because I'm all out of money. Besides the cost, it's still difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning, even if I have something important like this to do. This has resulted in my skipping days. Bad Mommy!

Speaking of money, I have sold my beloved Kindle. I have to say that I enjoyed reading books on the Kindle more than the actual paper copies. I can't explain why that is. I just know that, given the choice of reading one of my unread paper books or reading a book on the Kindle, I would go for the Kindle. I even bought a Kindle copy of a book I already owned so I could read it on the Kindle. I hope my Kindle's new owner will cherish it as much as I did. In case you haven't figured out why I sold my Kindle, read the first paragraph again. (And note that the "donate" button is still in the right column on this page! Also, I have a birthday coming up in June.)

I just finished reading Shutter Island on the Kindle. I had to finish it before shipping the Kindle to its new home. From watching the trailer, it looks like the movie pretty much follows the book. I'll see the movie when it comes out on DVD and compare the two. I enjoyed the book. It wasn't quite the horror that the movie trailer made me think it would be. Still, it was good.

"Kindle for PC" is available on Amazon.com to download for free. They promise that there will soon be a "Kindle for Mac" also available for free. I'm eagerly awaiting that download. It won't be the same - reading a book on my computer. I'd like it more if I had a notebook or laptop so I could carry it to read in a comfy chair or in bed, but I have a desktop computer, and unless I do some serious redecorating, there'll be no "Kindle" reading in bed!

Saturday I watched Apocalypto for the first time. It was great! I was surprised! I really didn't think I'd like it much, but it was on Starz (which I have since canceled) a couple of weeks ago, so I recorded it. It was quite violent and gory at times, but TV and movies have numbed me to that, I guess, because it didn't bother me much. It didn't detract from the story. In fact, it was the story, to a degree. If you haven't seen it, and if you don't mind the violence and gore, I recommend it - highly.

Did you know that "dot com" has been around for 25 years? You can read a story about that here. (See if you can find the grammatical error.) I own a few "dot coms," and one of them (intergnat.com) is still for sale, if anyone's interested.

One of my favorites

A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even-tempered. ~ Proverbs 17:27, NLT

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Pussy

I have realized that, if you want a lot of hits on your blog, all you have to do is put the word "pussy" in the title.

Hello Perverts!! Internet Porn Mongers!! SHAME ON YOU!!

Ha ha hahahahahahahahahahahaha!

And now, here is a picture of one of my pussies:

 
 This is Dexter.

Away with you now!!! Sickos.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Texas Snow

I'm sure most of us have seen "lots" of snow. More than we had a short time ago in central Texas, for sure. But for central Texas, a lot of snow is unusual. Therefore, a lot of people took a lot of pictures. I'm no exception. When something weird happens I want pictures! So here are a few pictures from the snowfall on February 23, 2010.

 
First, my car, for comparison to the photo in my 2/23 post.

Lots of snow falling.

 
Flakes up close in the backyard.

 
Ivy and bushes along the fence.

 
Lots of snow. 
We got a total of three inches of snow that day.