Happy Birthday Grandaughter Zoey and other stuff

A summer day in West Virginia: Happy birthday, Zoey.
I enjoyed the day even though there were a few reasons to be glad I'm me and not anyone else. But those reasons are no being discussed here ;-)
I drove to Morgantown. I saw my eldest daughter and family; I bought a loaf of wheat bread with sunshine seeds.
I saw my cousin,Leah, and her family - seem to be doing ok. I'll go back and see her again on Friday.
I keep reading the blogs to get the pictures of Zoey's party. And I know I'll get to see them soon ;+)
My Seester and her hubby are in Juneau, Alaska today - enjoying the extended daylight.
Outside right now the sky is covered with big grey puffy clouds. Looks like a storm is coming. There are no lightening bugs out (yet tonight) I saw one or two before the storm last night - wind was warm and humid and swirling leaves from the ground up. Just like it is tonight... warm, humid, darkening way before the normal hour...

I borrowed this from a blog I read last night, but I'm pretty sure it's a google image ;-) This is a popular summertime activity here in the hills: watching and catching lightening bugs. I wish my grandkids would see these fellows in person.

Stanley is sleeping in front of the TV - NCIS is rerunning (again) on channel 29-USA. Linda, Sandy and I are trying several "tricks" to get liquid and some food into him. But I am having no luck at all with the crushed medicine...
Fireflies-lightening bugs- they are just beginning to rise out of the lawn. Yippee. I'm going out and sit on the porch until the rain comes or the light goes.

Wish me luck.

Happy Father's Day 2011 from West Virginia

It's a warm and overcast day, here in the valley.

I am amazed at the way time flies when I'm not lookin'.

Who can say if we'll be this way again... Zoey's birthday celebration was yesterday in Marietta. I'm glad it was a joyous occasion. Leah broke her arm yesterday by throwing a CD case across the room. Her arm broke just above the elbow.After a trip to Fairmont's ER, on to Ruby by ambulance. Today they scanned: MRI, questions, CT scan, more questions, down to pre-op, back upstairs, more questions. Dr.s are looking for cancer tumors.
I'm tired, very tired. Stan won't eat, barely drinks. He's so thin. But he opened his eyes when I told him about Leah. So, I'm going back in to try to get him to eat while we watch 'Men in Black II'; we saw 'I am number four' and 'the King's Speech' yesterday.
Happy Father's Day, ya'all.

Sunny Sunday in the valley

Waiting.
It's really hard.
I have much to do. I need an energizer. or maybe a health club/exercise plan.
Maybe I'll pay the bills. Wow what a novel idea.

No, I think I'll take a nap.

Being rich is not having a lot of money; it's having options.

Good news.
Trisha and John (and Zoey) stopped by on their way back home yesterday. We had a lovely visit. I am so looking forward to summer and a little bit of unstructured travel time ;-)
Tracy and Keith are having car trouble and are staying close to home. But, f/b post show a lovely time at the farmer's market and great goodies for breakfast.
The rains came last night and the grass had been cut by Jeff's family before noon yesterday. Jeff also took the old laser printer off the front porch to the e-recycle at the VA park. One down, several to go (things on my bucket list)
Stan is still sleeping (I'm watching Sunday Morning on CBS). He slept most of the day yesterday, too.
I watched the stories on CBS Sunday Morning: Dr. Kevorkian's last euthanasia, Gunsmoke's hero-James Arness, Herp Alpert (he's Russian) of A&M records...and famous in the 60's and forward.
Now, I'm off to get the day's work started. The sun is hiding behind some soggy low-lying clouds.The deck is slowly drying out. I'm very slowly moving to sanity. I think I am. But then again, maybe I'm delusional.
Time will tell.
Happy 1st Sunday in June 2011.

Just another day in Paradise

     Whilst I reminisce, you may want to get coffee and a donut. I can't sleep.
It's probably the same ol' same ol' but I can't put my finger on the reason.
I've been awake a while - checking for new material on f/b and cleaning up the kitchen (too tired last night - achy and feeling soooo tired) but that's a nuther story.

     Currently, I'm being serenaded by the public access channel on TV. The show is a black n white montage of b/w scenes from southern WV during the early part of the 1940 - 50's, it appears to me, involving the coal mining industry. The scenes from the shopping in the hardware store really caught my eye: the kitchen stove - just like Mom n Dad's that is still in the basement, the woman in pedal pushers and checkered blouse, the women with shirtwaist dresses, short sleeves and hairstyles of the 50's, standing in front of the butcher's counter being handed their choices by men in aprons. Then, of course, there is the music - folk music before it was popular - telling the stories of coal barons raping the land and labor unions trying to hold life together in face of incredible odds in the time before social consciousness.
     Now, I see some balding guy tell the story of how he was brought to folk music in 1963 by watching on TV MLK's march on Washington with his Mother... Now, this same guy is singing his poetry to piano music in a folk music kind of way. 'The Room at the Top of the Stairs' is his poem/song. John McCutchen music for acoustic guitar and banjo.
     It's nice to hear polite discourse. I've been monitoring the ways of the scofflaws in the 7th grade for the past two days. It seems like a nice easy job: 18 kids in one room, no real work to do (for them) that counts toward the final grade/goal; hormones raging; evidently no idea how to entertain themselves w/o violence, sex or mayhem being involved... just a little chunk of society.  'Jobs' is the answer, even if you haven't asked the question or have no idea that there is even need for a question. Everyone needs meaningful work to do.
That's why I have to keep going with the job. I need something meaningful to do. Even if I am constantly self assessing my performance and constantly finding it lacking. Maybe that's why I can't sleep.

     And on to the mundane details of our current existence: the LHS has more problems that now amount to @ three thousand dollars, now... and the garage charges interest on the unpaid balance, of course... I finally paid the other 2k. The prevailing wisdom is Get It Fixed; pay the man; drive it; trade it later when incentives are in place. Hummmm...
     Linda didn't come on Friday - she went to see her kids in Ohio. Sandy came, God Bless her, and will be back on Monday, if she doesn't go to Pittsburgh with her brother's family. [brother tried to commit suicide earlier this week, is being transferred from the VA here to the VA in Pittsburgh to treat 'pain' associated w/heart. Long/short: nobody in bros family  can drive in Pittsburgh traffic, so Linda will probably take them all...] I can send my grades over the interesting net...but who will see to it that my room is not trashed by raging hormones, Vandals, and scofflaws?
       It's time to 'make the donuts' as they say in the business... I gotta get dressed. I don't really wish I could sleep in on a Saturday, but sometimes I wish I could rest...

The End is near ... a.k.a. Judgment Day 6p.m.

Something to look foreward to; the flowers are out, but not ready for cutting. Hope the rain holds off another two days and then we will have fragrant beauty inside, too.

From the rumours on f/b and conversations w/ my co-workers, the end is near - if not even here already (and just passed me by.) So, what did I do with the last 24 hours of life (as we know it now)?

• Went to work so that I could help reward the chillin's for their Westest performances which were polite, if not stellar... that's a whole'nuther story, if you've ever seen a middle school after days of politeness and following the rules.
• Came home in the sprinkling rain, after stopping to get the mail from Park and stock up the ol' stomach w/ Mickey D's double cheeseburger, coffee and, of course, I got fries with that.
• Stan and I had dinner together, watched something funny on CMT, and after trying to find the websites for Joey's graduation pics which were gone from my aol mail; sometime after 9, we called it a night and slept like babies (up ever few hours...)

The sun peek'd out last night before sunset and promised a better day today. And so it is!
There is nothing artistic, funny or even pleasant to report.
And that's the way it is, May 21, 2011, here in the valley.

Saturday in the Valley again...

Words cannot describe how lovely this place is in the spring.
When the lawn is manicured, the place looks cared for and loved.
The guy at the garage, Jeff,  reminded me how clean Dad kept his cars and his house. Jeff said, "I was in your Dad's basement once or twice to set his automatic garage door opener on the Chrysler. The basement was cleaner than most people keep their houses.'
I hope I haven't let Dad and Mom down. The place is not the same. I know that.
The LHS looks good since the boys at the garage washed and waxed her (even polished up the chrome on the wheels). They found my seatbelt, too, when I took it back last week. The buckle was inside the console (which they had removed when they fixed the A.C.)
I saw on the interesting net that the Fiesta outlet SALE is again in June with a Carnival atmosphere (some days in the 20's - I don't remember exactly. Now the company is selling sets of Fiesta with Java Mugs (instead of tea/coffee cups) finally 28 bucks right now on line in most colors - but not in hunter green - must have been discontinued - I have a mug but it was chipped, by Judy, who left her gum on the Haywood-Wakefield china cabinet.
Now, why do I remember THAT and forget so much more important thngs?...
I changed the settings on the I-phone so that the photos can't be traced by google - to protect the kids from stalkers. Now, there is a location sticker on this blog post creator... what IS going on?
Norma called.
I gotta go get something for dinner from the freezer. Hot and Sour soup would be nice if someone delivered out here.  Maybe tomorrow...