Memorial Weekend

Penny and I spent most of this weekend trying to shake a cold that we’ve had all week. We got little accomplished considering the fact that we’ve been back in town for a full week. While I was reviewing my blogs counting up the raccoons I have caught I was disappointed to see how much time I’ve spent hoping to get better from frequent colds or flair ups of pain. It’s been years since I’ve been able to even keep up a walking routine. Most of the time my reasons for not exercising were legitimate, not excuses. Sometimes I just got tired. In the back of my mind I know I’ve successfully gotten in shape before and think I can do it again but when I look at the reality of the last few years it doesn’t appear I can.

I saw several stories this weekend about military members who had lost 1 or more arms and legs and how they were managing their recovery. Attitude is everything. My initiative and drive has taken a severe beating primarily because of pain, frequent colds and some due to the resulting tiredness caused by ageing and being out of shape. Each time I do make progress something happens to stop it. I find it much easier to give up, too.

On a brighter subject the oil spill has not yet reached us but is getting closer. The oil is expected to reach the Alabama coast this week—it’s only 20 miles offshore now. The local news stations are renting boats and going out in the gulf to see where the oil is. I haven’t been to the beach since the wedding (weather and not feeling well enough) but I will be getting a beach walk soon to see if there are any preparations in place.

I had intended to reclaim the garage this weekend from using it as storage for wedding stuff. I didn’t succeed but I did make some progress. I came across some of K&C’s early works of art and stories, too.

One story was Christy’s “The Peacock Who Wanted to Fly” “written and illestrated” by Christy Guglielmoni.

The peacock has a meeting with his father and they decide they can do something. They enlist the aid of a sparrow who gives the peacock some skis which he could use as wings.

I also found this page written by a slightly older Karen.

K&C, you only can expect more of this stuff as I shuffle through the archives cleaning out the useless stuff and preserving the precious.

Kitty Update—there is some correlation I see to removing a raccoon and the presence of the kitties. Tonight all 4 regulars and Slash showed up for food.

They Just Keep Coming

I woke up this morning and checked the trap and found it full of a big fat raccoon.

So the first thing I did, even before breakfast was to go release it.

On the drive back I saw another rainbow so this was another raccoon to rainbow day.  I'm just hoping for at least a short break until the next raccoon.

At least this one was not threatening.  It groweled a little.  When I let it go it lumbered off to about 10 feet from me, stopped, turned around and looked at me for a good 5 seconds and then walked off.
I just went through my blog history an I have now caught a dozen raccoons.

If I Blogged 30 Years Ago

In this wonderful age of electronics we now have blogs to record our lives and how our kids are growing. Back in the stone age when our kids were growing I felt the need to write down at least some of what the kids were doing and I did it in a little spiral notebook.


Here is what Karen and Christy were doing when they were Sophie’s age.

Karen:

“Mommy didn’t buy lettuce today. She got a cucumber instead because lettuce was too much a gallon!”

At the beach Karen likes to go under water with me. She counts “1-2-3-4-5” and then ducks under the water with eyes open and a big smile on her face. She knows to turn her back to the incoming waves so as not to get water up her nose. She likes to make believe my back is her bed and crawl up there and “go to sleep”. Up on the beach she likes to make a cake out of the sand. She also learned that if you wiggle your toes it is impossible to cover them up with sand.

In the pet department of TG&Y Karen wanted to know why the fish flew like birds?  I showed her the goldfish and she said that was like Big Bird. She remembered Big Bird has a goldfish named Goldie.

When I come back from travel I give the kids the little bars of "Sweetheart" soap from the hotel.  Karen told Penny , Mommy, I got some "Darling" soap."

Karen can point out and read the words "EXIT" and "BOO".

Karen told me that “poo, P begins with poo”. She went on to tell me (correctly) what words began with P, S, T, B and L.

Karen can reach the light switch now. I told her she was getting big and she said “and strong, too.” “Daddy, I am you and you were me.”, meaning I used to be as small as her.

Christy:

“I’m not crying, my eyes are only watering.”

Christy is potty trained. Our use of lollipops as incentive was what we needed. She makes sure she gets her “poo-poo candy” (lollypop) when she goes. She went potty at the Montessori school and there was no toilet paper. She said, “They gots to get more paper here but life’s rough all over, isn’t it?”

Christy found the box for our Disney books. She said, “I think I found the house for the mickey mouse book” After watching Heidi on TV Christy started crying like crazy. We asked her why and she said, “because the end is over”

Christy likes to jump off my shoulders int the water at the little beach. She can actually swim well under water.

Christy wrote the letters W, V, Y and D nicely proclaiming “Daddy, look I made a good V”,etc. She also knows the sounds of the letters L, B, P, T, and S.

Christy got her hands dirty and told me we had to wash her hands because her “thumbs were blurry”.

Christy likes to make believe she is Snow White.

That’s it for now. I think I’ll try to do this every couple of months until it’s no longer cute. It gives me a way to more permanently record what I wrote about the kids many years ago.

Raccoons to Rainbows to Raccoons

I normally check the cat feeder first thing in the morning to make sure there is food in it. Having seen a raccoon yesterday I baited the trap last night with the food they like best—dry cat food—hoping I wouldn’t catch one of our cats.
This morning the raccoon was in the trap. First order of business became taking him to be released. This raccoon wasn’t the biggest I have caught but he was certainly the meanest. He growled and barked and jumped at me all the way to the car. He scared me. My body could feel the adrenalin well after I had released him.

Today was Target, haircut and then have a FOCCUS couple over at 4:30.

The couple was nice and we finished up in the one session. Penny made her world famous King Ranch Chicken for our meal and they each had seconds.

When we walked with them out to their car we found a nice rainbow in the sky even though it was quite cloudy. We all agreed it was a good sign.

I got my camera and after taking a couple shots in the front yard decided to go to the back yard and schoolyard and see if I could get a nicer shot.

As I got to the back door and started to open it—another raccoon was there and he scooted. So once again the trap is set.

A Zoorific Weekend

We spent the weekend in Jacksonville providing a date night for K&T and providing us with some quality time with the grandkids. K&T went out on Friday night.
Saturday was unplanned so Penny suggested we do the zoo. Timing was iffy with no good break for Sophie’s nap but we decided to go ahead and take the consequences. It worked out. Penny's idea turned out to be a great one.

The Jacksonville Zoo is a good one. We saw lots of animals—close-up—and that was only the first 15 minutes. Everywhere we went the animals were visible and mostly active. Sophie was excitedly pointing at everything.

Highlights were feeding the giraffes, riding the carosel, the water play area, the penguins and all the jaguars. Lucy calmly took it all in.

After the zoo Penny suggested we eat at a place highlighted on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives—Singletons. To get there involved a ferry ride, which was definitely different than our usual transport to dinner. We all had their shrimp burger, which was an item highlighted on the show. Lucy played peek-a-boo with a paper plate.  Sophie wore Dad's hat and got a ride on his shoulders.

Sunday was church followed by Famous Amos for us and a brunch for K&T. Sunday afternoon  Tim set up the kids pool in the front yard.

We drove back on Monday with light traffic and good weather.

My time since returning has been spent trying to recover my computer (again) in between laundry, paperwork and other household tasks. I’ve spent the whole day on the computer and I’ve only had partial success. Next step may be to buy windows 7 and put it on this machine.

The Crop is Coming In!

We had our first harvest from the garden today—a green pepper. Penny made Spanish macaroni using it.   Yum!  Tomorrow we get to pick blackberries—one for me and one for Penny. We also have a single grape tomato that is turning red. It’s a slow start but it is a start.

Isn't She Lovely?

Finally I Can See The Futon

I’m spending most of my time doing housework and recovering from the mass of stuff that we moved through our house before and after the wedding. I finally got the den back to normal today. Next comes the kitchen and then the living room.

I did fertilize the garden today so I guess it is time for a pictorial garden report.

Overall the garden is doing well this year.

I’ve actually got tomatoes maturing normally and in good numbers.

There are many tiny cucumbers growing on the vines .

 

About 3 of the zucchini are close to ready to pick

The basil and parsley are trying to go to seed.

Lots of peppers coming too.

We have only a few blueberries and blackberries but they look good.

 

 

Out With The Old

I have lots of stuff from the wedding sitting in the garage. I am finding places to store the stuff so I can put my car back in the garage. I’m using this task to re organize the storage that has been untended to while all the latest projects were being worked on.
Today while pulling some old kids workbooks off the shelf to toss I found a packet of pictures from their gymnastic days. The pictures weren’t in great shape but here are 2 that I liked:

Another Day, Another Nap

Today was no different from every other day this week. I wake, I eat, I nap, I eat, I nap. If this continues another trip to the doctor is in order. I sleep but I’m still tired.

We did Waffle House today instead of tomorrow. Penny needed stuff from Wal-Mart and it’s not crowded early (except in the single checkout line).  So we use it as an excuse to have breakfast out.  It doesn't exclude going again tomorrow.

Penny also used her quilting frame for the first time today—just before she threw he back out.

She’s doing OK after some self induced chiropractic manipulation (better known as something going pop) .

I also found a game that could be named after me. It’s called “Boochie”

The Past Week or So

We spent last week using the other 3 days of our 4-day Disney pass and visiting my Sister for her birthday. Since our return I have once again contracted a cold. Did I pick it up at the doctor’s, the hotel, one of the 3 parks or somewhere else? Who knows? Regardless it has kept me from accomplishing much for these past 4 days. I’ve got a stuffy head, headache and queasy tummy. The good news is I am in less pain since the visit to the doctor. He gave me a shot for my back pain and while it didn’t end it. It has toned it down. A side effect was also some relief of the severe pain I’ve had in my thumbs.
We went to Animal Kingdom last Tuesday. It’s a visually pleasing place, small enough to see in a day and a good place to unwind.

Wednesday was Hollywood Studios. For me it had 3 good rides. (Penny couldn’t go on them she’s not tall enough. OK, it’s really her health) I went on the Tower of Terror (a drop ride), The rock’nroll roller coaster (0 to 50 in 3 seconds—a launch coaster), and a 3-D arcade type ride which rotates your car to each shooting station where you shoot at various targets. You play against the other person in the car and get scored on accuracy and points. It was my favorite ride and I think Penny could have gone on it (and she would have loved beating me).

Thursday we did Epcot. I rode 2 rides (test track and soarin) and they were fun. Next we spent a while inside the aquarium just sitting and watching the fish. (This is where Kathy and I swam with the fishes a few years ago) Watching fish is Penny’s favorite activity. We then did the walk around the pond and visited each nation’s pavilion. Lunch was in Morocco. We visited the fish once more before we left. That used up our 4-day pass.

We drove to Tampa to visit Kathy.

On Friday we took Kathy to lunch and had some great food. We also walked around the neighborhood there to see the sidewalk chalk art that was being created for a weekend festival.

The drive back home was uneventful with little Saturday traffic and no rain.

Since returning, however, I’ve gotten little done here at home. This cold has worn me out to where I’ve needed a nap almost every morning before I could do anything productive.

We did go to Harbordocks yesterday and went to see Iron Man in the movies. I had Cobia once again and the movie was fun.

The garden is starting out fine. Tomatoes, squash, peppers, eggplant, blackberries and blueberries all have some fruit growing on them.

So far the oil in the Gulf has stayed away.

KITTY UPDATE-- There is good news on the kitty front. All 4 cats have been here all week. A couple have hung around the back yard all day each day. Where they were for 2 plus weeks? Who knows?

Maybe tomorrow I’ll get something constructive done.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of our visit to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios:

Cats

Except for Buzz it appears the other cats have abandoned us. The tomcats and 1 raccoon have visited but none of the others.