Monday, May 31, 2021

Where She Was/What She Did

 

In the mall, in 1985 I paid $5.00 to have this photo taken with the baby Lion, held him all of 60 seconds.

We both had a PLAN for Saturday.
 Bob's PLAN started at 4:30, which was fill the pool, brush/vac/curse the pool to remove black sand from drought that filled the pool with black sand. 
He said we can't wait any longer for rain to put water in the pool, I will have to use the hose and pay for the water.
Yes it was dark, he used the back yard floodlights and who knows how many neighbors heard 
the cursing of said pool.
Remember this... No rain for many months. Nada! Not One Drop!


MY PLAN for Saturday also started at 4:30 AM
 Attack The Cabinet under the Nook where the Photos from a lifetime are stored along with various other things that fall out when I open the door.
4:30 AM placed chair in front of cabinet and remove 30 plus albums
4:35 AM Open first Album and page through photos.
5 AM stop paging take Beau Out to do his business
5:15 AM paging
5:30 eat breakfast
6 AM while paging tell Beau we will walk at 6:15 the same as we do every day
6:18 
The Rain Began! First a nice drizzle, Yay! and Bob kept working
I kept paging through photos
6:25 Beau goes to door, let him out, he walks out in rain and back inside, he hates rain.

The Top Shelf is still spilling and bulging.
The Rain Never Stopped, Bob kept cursing and working, I kept paging
Took Beau out 4 times to prove it was still raining.
At 10 it slowed to a light drizzle, I took Beau out in the drizzle and we hit the road, it wasn't bad, we walked half way and IT STARTED TO REALLY RAIN.
Came home dried off Beau and myself, hung my wet clothes in shower 
and 
BOOM! Flash! Boom!
BOB ITS THUNDERING I YELL, he can't hear thunder.
He yells I KNOW! I am going to finish this, I am almost done
I can't decide whether to pray the lightning hits him or doesn't! MEN!
 I kept paging. and paging and looked at the last photo at 11:30 and had done nothing but look at photos.
Bob came in and dried off, I put all the albums back in the cabinet and closed the doors.
the cabinet looked the same as when I started.
Day One of The PLAN. Bob did his, I did not,
But I did find photos I had forgotten we have and you may or may not be flooded with Throwback Photos a LOT!
P.S. I ordered Pizza Delivered, Paging through albums is hard work
What she did, to be continued
Valentine Day 1985, 6 days after we got married. Bob, Me and Skip, my 1st cousin. Skip was the joker in our family. He passed away mid 2020 and I missed his funeral due to the pandemic. He was 58


Bob and I at my son Dan's 18th Birthday party. 1985




Saturday, May 29, 2021

The Rant

 


Now if you don't want to hear the RANT feel free to say how wonderful the photo from my archives is and pass on. 
😛😛😛😛

Bob received a letter this week, the ominous return address was
Juror Clerk, Federal Courthouse, Tampa FL.

We in the USA know what this means. Jury Duty.
FEDERAL Jury Duty.

Under threat of PENALTIES from Federal Govt the paper had to be returned by mail or go to a link on line. 
Robert, you have TEN days to answer this letter under penalty of The Law!
I saw RED
With the info you provide we will decide if you will be called as a juror on a federal case.
Yada yada blah blah its your duty, blah blah yada you must under penalty of blah blah
on and on.
A. bob  will be 85 Oct 1, he can't hear, he can't even walk the dog a half mile let along drive to Tampa.

B. the federal court house is 90 minute drive and each case can be weeks/months long

C, He has already been removed from the local list of Jurors for all of the above.

I went online, filled out the form, received the confirmation that I did it.

 I had to tell them why I was filling it out for him and who I was and it said if you don't have access to internet do NOT call.
Do it by mail. What if it got lost in the US MAIL that is now US FAIL MAIL

Here is where the rant comes in. After 20 minutes of filling out all the reasons he can't do it, at the very bottom , last thing it said you may choose the 
I AM OVER 70 and choose not to do this option. 
Why was that not at the top? They knew his age because I had to USE his age to sign in.

In our world, Rabble Rousers can attach the Capitol building, kill police officers and threaten to kill the Vice President and they threaten US with Penalty of Law for not answering the letter in 10 days?

Yes, I am almost certain they will remove him from the list, but it was the threatening tone of the letter that set me off, that and the fact they did not offer the option of over 70 until the very end.


Friday, May 28, 2021

Moss Rose update

 


View of Stump With Tractor that doesn't run. The path is the one we follow to trash bins and take to walk Beau. This is what I see when we come back home.
Beau always gives a sniff to the tractor that doesn't run and has not for the 15 years since he pushed it across the street from the neighbors house that so kindly gave it to him.
Even better is, there are TWO of them. The other is behind the blue trash bin.
Roses for Rosy at LLB in Backyard for Nature Friday


My cheap flowers  have doubled in size, and the Crack now has 4 plants and 1 bloom.
Only Five Dollars for each one.



Thursday, May 27, 2021

The Impulse Buy

 

Impulse buy, by MadSnapper

Another view of impulse buy, also by MadSnapper

The view of the impulse buy when the man from Mars steps from garage into dining area

the view of impulse buy when Man from Mars steps into kitchen.
That Said, Why does he not see notes I write on the Impulse Buy?
I stopped writing on it and will now use it for creating artistic views of it for your viewing.

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Ugly Duckling to Swan

 


I will be taking a day or maybe 2  off.. Two more closets 1 cabinet and window washing

The above house, use your mind and remove all the white trim, the screen door and the steps, turn it blue asphalt shingles, add concrete blocks for steps and a horrid roof.
Ugly Blue Sqaure Shack for all the years we drove by it.
UNTIL NOW 
. From 1989 to 2014 it was a mess of a house. It was sitting on concrete blocks and had 4 concrete block as a step up.
In 2014 it sold and was painted and bottom enclosed and remained an ugly box.

it has been  remodeled in phases. I found these photos on the tax records.
By 2018 per tax records it looked like this.





We missed it because we stopped driving that way..
2 weeks ago we found the house completed. 
Below are the photos I took a couple of weeks ago.
The Wraparound Porch Changed the whole house


My New Most Favorite House 



Monday, May 24, 2021

Whatever Blogger

Blogger 

What! you say IT's been Reported and you don;t know how long it will be.......


Be glad there is no sound on this blog.


 
Behold my Blogger FIT!!!


Sunday, May 23, 2021

Shadows Shot Me and the Stump




Do not try to change your header, I changed the one on FourpawsETC and now it will not put one there except the size of a postage stamp. I have reported it... hope they fix it soon....  
Myra you called it right when you said there would be MANY more photos of the Rose Moss

IF ANYONE CAN HELP WITH THE POSTAGE SIZED HEADER PLEASE EMAIL ME

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Can you say TACKY???

 


Back in the mid 70's, my husband worked two jobs, one as a Fireman after he got out of the Air Force, and the 2nd was Carpet salesman/installer on his off days.

We had free access to any thing that was left over after he did a job.
RED Shag Carpet was the RAGE. There was just enough to carpet our small living room.
I bought red, pinch pleated draw drapes and then added a sofa and matching chair in white with RED cabbage roses.

I have no photos, because we had no camera, but this is much like it looked.
Within 6 months I was sick of it but could not change it because I could not make myself admit to my mother and a few others that warned me to much red and I would get tired of it.
My answer was I LOVE red!
HA! now 50 years later I can admit I HATED it in about 2 months time.
I still love red as you can see below.
I ordered 4 kitchen towels that hang on the front of the stove.
Murphy LOVES me. 
Two are red striped and one red, one green plaid.
The Stripes are perfect
The Red Plaid came with two MALE snaps, thus no way to snap it, PLUS on both the snaps are in the wrong places and will not shut around the handle
Zoom in and you will see a very large Safety Pin works well. 
I did not want to return to Amazon just because I did not want to.
I know Yam and Ceil will love these. Do YOU?



Friday, May 21, 2021

Crack Pot and The Stump

 


Its Nature Friday on some blogs and what is more nature than pretty flowers. They have doubled in size in just a few days.
I did not repair the pot, I like it cracked, and intend to have flowers growing out of the crack.
there are 3 rooting,, soon to be more.



Most of all I love this stump... Nature's beauty, left from the tree that was hit by lightning and cost us 1500.00 to have it taken down. He wanted another 500 to take out the stump. I LOVE IT! So left it.
NOTE! the house of five cars are all at home at 7 am 

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Fi Fi Fo Fum um Fly

Reenactment of a scene, time, place


Last night we went to bed, the man who instantly falls asleep was snoring in under 60 seconds. 
Just as my eyes were getting droopy and starting to doze.
I an just drifting into la la land, when a B52 Bomber flew over the bed.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz BZZZZZZZZ

my eyes instantly widened as far as they could.

I got up! Followed the sound, and found it was between the blinds just over our head.
I leaned over the bed with the fly swat, he moved over bob's head.
Bam! missed BAM! missed.
Have you heard blinds rattle when you slap them?

The blinds are rattling, after 5 Bams I decided to move to the living room sofa, the Because the BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ got louder and louder.
Thinking how uncomfortable that sofa is, I grabbed the swatter,
AGAIN
Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam
Bob never blinked an eye
I let the blinds slam down hoping he would wake up and kill the darn thing. 
He is much better at it than I am. He can grab a fly out of the air.

He slept on as I walked to the wall to hang the swatter, the fly followed me, NO KIDDING. he flew with me buzzing my ears.
I became the pied piper of flies and he followed me into the bathroom and I closed the door and went to bed. 
Either he went to sleep for the night or was no loud enough to come through the door.

3:30 AM Beau does his usual wake up LICK of which ever body part he can reach from the side of the bed and I of course go straight to the bathroom and There HE IS! (has to be a he, a she would not be that aggravating)
I grab the swatter and HE sits on the wall and BAM he is down and dead.
Bob is awake this time with hearing aid in and hears the Bam and comes to see what I am doing.
I show him the fly and tell this exact story and he is roaring with laughter and saying he wishes he could have seen it.
NO, I did not Swat Him, I laughed with him.
In a fit of giggles, he said I knew I should have put the garbage bin at the curb yesterday.
I remember him saying there is only one thing in the bin, it can wait.
The one thing in the bin as it turns out, was Watermelon Rinds and when we opend the lid, the melon had made WINE and a swarm of flies flew out.
He said we never have flies and I said how many times do we have watermelon wine in our trash bin?



Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Chain Reaction 6

 


You may remember the Cracked Pot in our front yard. When I went to Home Depot to buy the house plant, they had gorgeous Purslane and portulaca every where. I bought none and got home and thought, Idiot, they would be good in the cracked pot. The next day during Walmart Seniors Only Early shopping, I checked there garden shop and they had them too.  I had the flowered pot that was also empty.


I planted tiny pieces in the crack of the pot, and will show you those as soon as they root and look good. 

While planting the plants that I call Moss Rose, I saw three empty pots in the back yard by the pool.

I have a label full of these HERE and have grown these for years. Sun or Shade and grow all by themselves.

Aha! I will pull up the ferns that are growing 4 feet tall and plant them in the pots.. They are all over our back yard and easy to yank up. 

I can tell you it took me a couple of hours and my back and hands and shoulders sent me to bed with my pal Asperin.


These ferns are called Macho Fern Nephrolepis biserrata. they are a big and bold fern and are also referred to as Giant Sword Fern. they grow about 3 feet tall and are native to Florida and spread like weeds. Ours are 4 feet tall in some places. 
Drought resistant and only need a few sprinkles here and there to survive.

The chain reaction from buying 4 valances for the Living Room Window ended with 5 days of hard labor when I planted these ferns.   There are two more closets and one cabinet to go. Maybe during the Next Pandemic.



 



Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Chain Reaction 5


This is the spot where I dug up the children of Philomena, to put in the green vases, to sit on table and counter. 
Side note: The ugly frog, was made by my Other Mother that raised me, Daddy's sister Helen, and 
given to my mother about 60 years ago. He guards our front door.
Of course, I digress....
Philomena is doing well, she has about 6 new leaves


We had Philomena's sister hanging on the porch and I think that is how her children 
ended up by the frog.
Who knows and no one cares.

The thing Is, Digging those up and loving the one on the side table,
 sent me to Home Depot for a plant for the other table.


For some reason, I who toses every thing, had the green planter that is from 1990, given to me when my mother died. The little plants that were in it, now are taking over our back yard.. 


This adorable plant has heart shaped leaves just like Philomena, but teeny tiny. 
Alva is an exotic angel plant, Creeping Fig, ficus pumila  and comes to us from South East Asia

I named her Alva after my grandmother and took her portrait in front of Philomena's child, now named Helen, after my Aunt. And she is living on my kitchen counter.

Philomena's other child is Lucille, after my mother and living in the living room HA HA
as you wait with bated breath, YES, there is a Chain Reaction 6 coming soon 

I hope you are remembering all of these names because someday I will need help remembering what I named them. There may be a TEST






Monday, May 17, 2021

Chain Reactions part 4

 

Continue from yesterday...
I continued to race from space to space, each thing leading to another.
I opened the linen closet across from the newly organized storage closet 
to add one small light bulb, the tiny one for the fixture over the kitchen stove.

There was ZERO room to put a tiny bulb. I moved kitchen chair, both desk chairs into the hall and started dragging stuff out.
This was the next day, I went to bed with closet exhaustion. 
Three Hours Later I had this view
NOTE no photo of the Way It WAS


Both beds were covered in sheets, and more sheets. I called Bob and said LOOK AT THIS, he said 

What is all that? I said Sheets that we have had for 32 years. This yellowed one is 37 years old.
He says Why am I looking at this?

I said, Do you think I need to keep sheets we have not used in 30 years?

He said NO get rid of them. 
I said What if one of us gets sick and throws up during the night and we need extra sheets,

He said, You have two new sets, and we have a washer.

I said what if we are too sick to wash clothes?
The bulging closet bulges no more!
Sheets are tossed
Things are washed and refolded and the closet was EMPTY!
Actually for the first time in YEARS.
We have 2 good sets and 1 soo set.
I did not tell Bob, but I did keep 5 flat sheets, for you know,
Just In Case! 
We might need to cover the furniture when we PAINT. he he he 
I also kept 4 ancient rugs in case a hurricane comes and we need to stop up the sliding glass door.
you know, for JUST IN CASE!

I dragged Bob into the computer room, open a drawer and said 
Remember This! I moved all the lightbulbs to this drawer.
They have been in the linen closet for 32 years, and I know when you go to get one you will say where are the light bulbs and if we both know, MAYBE one of us will remember where I moved them.
I said to him Guess how many little bulbs we have for the over the stove thingy?
SIX and they are good for a year. At our age, we may have a lifetime supply.
I said, we only have one lightbulb for a lamp. 
He said when is the last time we turned on a lamp?
The answer is we can't remember. 
WE are Good!
I am exhausted...







Sunday, May 16, 2021

Chain reaction 3

 


While hanging curtains and shifting plants, Our OTC order came. Our insurance gives us 60 dollars each once a quarter to be used ordering Over The Counter things Old People Need.
Above would have cost me over 200.00 if I purchased at Walmart. We got it FREE.
Delivered to our door.
IT ARRIVED
 the cabinet I store things like this in was bulging from C-19 spree buying overload.
I took everything out of the cabinet
everything out of the closet
Shifted and Shaped and Stashed and Stuffed
 and Put it all back in different places.


Four hours, removing, tossing, organizing.
even agonizing.
We need everything in the THREE boxes of First Aid, because Bob is on blood thinners and bleed daily.
I could probably pass the RN test if I tried.
I spent an entire four hours of my morning removing and tossing and organizing. 
color me shocked at the number of bottles of alcohol and 
peroxide.
and when I counted 5 cans of Lysol, I truly sighed.
With much glee I can tell you that 3 of those boxes are empty inside.
but Wait There is even MORE!
to be continued in episode Four

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Chain Reaction Part 2

 


 I moved the curtains from living room to bedroom to block the sun, and we both LOVE them. I had intended to use them for the time the suns comes in this time of year, but now they Belong There.
Time frame above was from 6:30 to 7, you can see the subtle changes.
Above shows left to right, 6:30 AM, 6:40, 7 AM open and closed blinds.

the blast of  a heat furnace blast comes much later in they day. 
Ribbons are tied on when we wake up, easy to drop them when needed.

Since I liked both windows so much, it started another chain reaction 


I moved the rooted pieces of Philomena from kitchen counter to front window.


The kitchen counter was bare, I moved the 2nd empty green vase to the counter and added Philodendron from the front yard.

Which left 2  bottles on the shelf  and a blank spot on the kitchen wall.

With the living room looking like it had a spotlight shining on it, 
I started a flurry of cleaning and dusting because NOW I can SEE what is there.

The shiny table by the ancient ugly rocker, now needs a plant, but I have no suitable height container which mean I will have to shop for one.


to fill the space on the shelf, I simply moved the bottle further apart and added to pieces of Philomena into the larger bottle until I can decided what to do.

I cut off the bottom of the photo because I hate the wooden Bow that is on it. I want Bob to cut off the bow, but well, You Know!
I despise the shelf  put there 32 years ago.
(new chain reaction on the way)

As I took all the photos, I said to Bob what I have said dozens of times. 
That  rocker is killing my back and looks awful because it is covered in two towels so the cracked leather doesn't cut my legs, instead of of him saying it looks fine to me, 
he said 'I think your right'.
I bought that chair back in the 90's from a USED furniture store.
It is OLD and NOT an antique.

Are you picking up what I am putting down?

But wait there is more..... to be continued.