Namaste

On Thursdays here at my office they offer a yoga class from 11:30 - 12:30.
I am really enjoying it.
Altho, I tend to get a bit restless during the cool down. I am already a pretty relaxed person, I really don't need much more.

At the end of the class the instructor asks us to bow to our head to our heart and give thanks for our minds and bodies and our health and blessings. I quietly give thanks for my lunch.

Tending the flock

There are so many of them now. We have become security, nursemaids and a search and rescue team for our flock.
Last week, on my way out to the garage, I saw one of them stuck up in the attic above the car park. There is a stationary window to a low attic up there - and this silly feathered fool was repeatedly flying into it, attempting to escape. My clever wife went in first and tossed a blanket over him, I donned gloves and we carried him to safety.

This morning - I came downstairs and my wife tells me we have another event. Apparently a baby had fallen from its nest. There were parents and aunts and uncles squawking all over the place. The problem for these poor creatures is they can't pick up and carry their young. So there’s the little guy calling out for help and his whole family is just flying around.
The FREE dog was very interested in the problem at hand – however, the family of the orphan was not happy for her interest. Every time she came any where near the infant there was a whole lot of ruckus. Interestingly, when either my wife or I approached the little guy – there was silence. Because of course – we are the law.
And so this is our lot.

It's just what I do

When I was a young teen I got a spiffy, new 10 speed Schwinn bike.
They were all the rage, and it was great to have transportation.
As should be no surprise to anyone... I used to wash and wax it.

Fridaze

Have a baked on, stuck on mess you don't want to clean?
Put the pan in plastic garbage bag with 1/2 cup of ammonia, and leave it overnight. The next morning the mess will wash off easily.
(and really ...the best part is the justifiable procrastination.)

sheesh... Kids

kids can be such a dissapointment.
Can you believe, that BOTH of our kids, making their plans completely separately -- are going to see Tom Petty this weekend.
oy. You try to teach them...

Neil Sedaka

In an ongoing effort to lose a couple pounds, my svelte wife and I have been walking most days of the week with the FREE dog. The dog is key. She LOVES the walk but more importantly without her I would be sitting on a park bench somewhere. We walk a trail, down and back, and we trade off holding the leash. I get to hold it on the return trip. Her pulling me down the trail is the only thing that gets me back to the car.
This trail is a repurposed railroad bed. It goes through some thick woods and comes out at a park on one end. Our walk is about 3 miles, there and back.

Last evening when we left the house it had just started to rain. A soft, summer, sultry rain. So we brought slickers.
Well about ¼ of the way into the trail, the sky darkened. The trail began to look ominous and the heavens opened up.
I immediately enter ‘Rainman’ mode.
Mild panic sets in.
That was when the lightening started.

My wife … walks on, happily “What’s a little rain”, she says. … and I am pretty sure she is humming…

Oo, I hear laughter in the rain
Walking hand in hand with the one I love
Oo, how I love the rainy days
And the happy way I feel inside

My panic level rising, walking briskly, head down, repeating,
“Not supposed to be outside in the lightening. Not supposed to be outside in the lighting.”

My sweet wife, who knows me all too well, is smiling and reaches out to take my arm to comfort me. I quickly pull back… oooo no no no, don’t wanna make any connections – current will travel, better if we are not connected, no touching.

Clearly …we survived. We finished our walk too! (my courageous wife is nothing if not driven)
Soaking wet and muddy, 45 minutes later we get back into the car.
And of course, what do dogs do when wet.

The FREE dog had a good shake.

Oo, I hear laughter in the rain
Walking hand in hand with the one I love
Oo, how I love the rainy days
And the happy way I feel inside

Friday's

Keep a dry erase marker in the bathrooms. You can write messages on the bathroom mirror, or even the tiles.
Leave a morning reminder for the kids, a Happy Birthday note, or my favorite... little love notes.

Suburgan Gangs

Now they are forming gangs. I saw a flock of them…all black and shiny, take down a rather large hawk the other day. They chased him into thicket, screaming madly, nipping and poking. The cacophony when on for over 5 minutes, I considered going in and breaking it up…but there were so many of them – and you know how that gang mentality is.
Suddenly there was silence. The flock flew out. I never say the hawk emerge. I shudder to think of what happened in there.
This is what happens when you mix overcrowding with these hot sultry summer days… vandalism, looting, gang violence.

Top down dog

Look who loves the Cabrio.

A continuing battle

Our adversaries continue to taunt us. Over the weekend they mounted another attack, and their numbers seem to be growing.
Altho all is not lost, we believe we have discovered one of their major trade routes.


We have assigned a sentry to this post.


We will continue to monitor their movements, and ready ourselves for retaliatory assault.

Friday's

Today's tip:
Don't think it's too late to get rid of unsightly weeds in your lawn. Just because the dandelions have flowered, puffed and finished their cycle, there is still time.
Apply a broadleaf herbicide while weeds are actively growing. (which means now... right now, go ahead - get up ..go do it)
For best results use one with an added fertilizer (Weed-n-Feed). Apply in the early morning so the dew will help the herbicide will stick to the leaves of the weeds. Apply when no rain is expected for 24 to 36 hours.
For families with small children and pets, apply an organic fertilizer, such as Milorganite. You can spot treat weeds with with a liquid herbicide, or even better, get this tool - and pop those dandelions out by hand. It works like a charm... I have one.

This is Axel

(for the story, see yesterday's entry below)

Axel

I came into work this morning with the top down, it was a beautiful sunny ride in.
I come in early, so I usually get primo parking right next to the stairs on the second level of our parking garage. Since the top was down...even before I got out of the car I heard a cat meowing. It echoed all over the place and sounded distressed, it also sounded like a kitten…altho, I can be a bit of a drama queen (my patient wife is chuckling right now). Of course, I immediately started to look for this distressed and starving kitten. Each time it meowed… I would try to walk in the direction I had heard it from. But then it would stop, clearly because it was near death…and I would have to wait, then again…try to find the poor little thing. I quickly realized I could not do this alone so I went in to get help. I found Brenda. Brenda LOVES cats.
So then the two of us were down there in the parking garage, running one way or another every time we heard the little mew. The sound was bouncing all over the place and was so intermittent that we had a lot of trouble locating the source.
We needed more help, more people to spread out so when he did meow we could move quickly to find the poor starving, frightened and possibly injured little kitten. So Brenda got Joe. Now the three of us are walking around looking up, looking down…looking like we are nuts. I got a flashlight…we checked the drains we looked in all the nooks and crannies we could find. Time was clearly running out, the meowing came less frequently, the situation was dire. But we three were not going to give up – we were going to find this possibly abused or discarded little animal if that was all we did today.
By shear luck-- I think – the cat started meowing again, and we all happened to be standing near this green Altima with out of state plates. It sounded like it was coming from the car.
So there we were, as the parking garage was filling up- the three of us – crouched down around this car. Joe had his ear to one side, and I had mine pressed to the other. At first we thought the cat was in the trunk. But Joe got down under the car with the flashlight, and there he was. The cutest little tabby kitten you could imagine, tucked up behind the rear tire, sitting on the axel. (I will post a pic later, can’t ftp from work).
With some treats from my lunch Brenda was able to get him out. He was dirty and pretty jumpy at first, but he’s still here with us at the office and has eaten most of my lunch already.
We saved his life and named him Axel.

Meet me at 'The Spot' at 4:44

Evidently we live at 'The Spot'.
They gathered again this morning, same time. There must have been more of them today. The noise was even more intense, I was sure some had actually gotten into our room. But then, close to 5 a.m. - it was quiet. They were gone. They had moved on.
Clearly our house is just the gathering point before further adventures of the day. If I wasn't so tired, I might think this was cool.

4:44

Perhaps I will research the local gun laws in my town today.
Their numbers have become somewhat unwieldy. And for the life of me I don’t understand why they scream so.
But there they all were at about quarter to five this morning, gathered outside the windows seemingly surrounding the house… screaming. This wasn’t just chatter – they were yelling. From where I lay in bed it sounded like they were yelling at us.
I can’t imagine why they would be so enraged. We have been nothing but nice to them – well, until now. Things are going to change. I have had it with the noise… and the mess. I spend a good part of the weekend cleaning up after them.
Enough is enough, measures will be taken.
Hitchcock has nothing on us.

My stunning wife and I got to be gay this weekend.
As you must know, June is Pride month, with Boston and New York hosting the majority of events. Saturday we went to a local Pride block party. For anyone who is not gay – you have no idea of how liberating it feels to just ‘be’.
I realize times are changing, and people are more ‘out’ than they have ever been.
But still – it’s not the same, ‘just being’ feels really good. And while it may be perfectly ok for two very attractive, middle aged lesbians such as ourselves to walk down the street arm in arm – it’s still a spectacle, it’s still a novelty. I don’t want to be a novelty; I don’t want to be noticed for just being with my wife.
It’s one of the biggest reasons why we get soo excited about our yearly trip to PTown – it’s why we choose to go there year after year. We are just faces in a crowd there; no one gives us a second look (well… we may turn some heads ;o).

So ..cheers to Pride month – cheers to 55 more days ‘till PTown!

Friday's

Inspired loosely by David's photo fridays , and a suggestion from a friend (yes, that's you Sue)...
I am going to offer Hints and Tips on fridays (Think 'Hints from Heloise' ala Weese).
I seem to be the 'go-to' gal for advice on a couple subjects - mainly falling into the Cleaning and Lawn Care catagories.
So each friday I will offer a tip in one of these categories...or just some other sorta helpful tidbit... take it as it comes(my new catch phrase by the way).

Today's Tip
Do you have a stubborn stain on a favorite blouse, or perhaps a table cloth.
Try this, pretreat and launder as usual, then hang it out to dry in full sun.
Leave it out for the day, and see if your stain dissapears.

(this works best on food/drink stains or protien stains such as blood, not as effective on grass stains, and probably won't work on ink or grease type stains, intended for home use only, always wear saftey goggles, never do laundry under the influence of alcohol)

A Day of Remembrance

We went to the Memorial Day Parade in my Mom’s town on Monday.
She lives in senior housing right on the parade route; so we have a little lunch and put out the chairs and watch the parade go by. It’s small town stuff. The parade is largely dominated by girl scouts, brownies, daisies (whatever the heck those are) cub scouts, boy scouts, little leaguers… and more brownies. I think some towns really ought to put a limit on these extraneous little marchers. This parade is about veterans, and soldiers and cops and firemen and those who protect us. I don’t want to lose that in a myriad of candy tossing 8 year olds.

I am very moved by this parade.

First, there is the excitement of the fly over. This year we got two jets, low enough to tremble our lawn chairs. This is the part my patriotic wife really likes.
She LOVES the flyover.

In those jets are young pilots. Young people who have dedicated their lives to protecting me. I have nothing but respect… and admiration for these people.
On a good year we will get to see vets from each military branch, from a variety of wars from WWII to Vietnam and Korea, the Gulf war…the Cuban missile crisis… well?….

As I am sure is the case in other small towns we also toss in most of our fire trucks, ambulances, police cars and motorcycles …and horses if you got ‘em. These are a brave bunch as well. They fight the battles here at home.

And so we sit waving our flags… to say “Thank You”.

This year, as we had lunch we watched two couples come up the hill towards the parade route. The man from each couple proudly wore a Garrison hat with his post assignment. One man had the arm of his wife, gently supporting her, my mother explained that she has Alzheimer’s and so he is always right there at her side. The other man used a cane, and probably should have been driven up the long hill – but he was clearly a soldier… and so he walked.

The couples settled in their chairs with front row seats, we were seated just behind them (it’s a small town parade – everyone can have a front row seat… we just wanted to be in the sun).
From this vantage point we got to see the salute when the WWII vets paraded by -- from one Vet to another. It wasn’t a standard military, stiff, formal salute; it was an informal, small motion, yet the meaning that it held was gigantic.
I can’t truly explain the feeling I had at that moment. I am welling up in just re-telling the story. In just that small gesture, in just the look across Anytown Main Street– from one soldier to another – there was a world of history, of emotion, of camaraderie, of respect, of brotherhood – between men who most likely had never met before. I was so choked up I couldn’t speak. These frail old men, who struggled up the hill – are my brave and strong heros.