Happy Mothers Day

Here in the states it is mothers day today. My  youngest son and husband bought me an iphone, which I got last week, so far I'm lovin' it even though I don't know how to do much with it yet. I  will print out a users manual next week, then I will study it. A few years ago I had a Blackberry with online access  etc. But then times called for austerity so I told him I would give all the online stuff up with the stipulation that when I started getting Social Security that I was buying an iphone and would pay the extra 30 bucks a month for being online . He said that is fair, so that's how it was . Now I haven't gotten a SS check yet, and he bought the phone for me. I will pay for  the online stuff tho when I do.I don't care, I am a freak about tech stuff, whether or not I know much about it. That is why in a house with 3 people living in it there are 4 computers, I am the one that sets them all up, installs and removes things, and listens to Mr. Punxxi whine when things don't work the way he wants them to. It is very funny to me because I never had a computer until 1996. Never worked with them which he had done for several years. Everything I know( not too much) I learned by playing with my first computer. It was a fun hobby, AOL had just gone to unlimited access, so I would spend all night online, talking to a group of people that went to a political humor board...the board is long gone, but now we are all on facebook together, we have met in person several times( in Las Vegas, mostly) The people I meet online are my best friends. I am somewhat afflicted with social anxiety, so it is perfect for me, I feel more confident online, maybe because I can edit my mouth, can't do that in public, yanno.  Anyway as you have noticed by now, this posts isn't really about mothers. Maybe that is because mine never was much of one, but she has been dead for 9 years  or so. I wasn't much of a mother myself, but I did do what I thought was the best thing for my boys when I divorced their father...I gave him custody and he raised them. 20 years later we got remarried and it is sooo much better this time around. We have a lot of fun this time. I guess getting married at 18 and pregnant puts a lot of stress on you. Anyway, I wish all the great moms out there happy mothers day, even to my honey, cos he was a great mother to my kids!
Oh yeah, the reason that I stayed up all night yakking is because I worked 12 hour night shifts at the time and always stayed on my same schedual on my days off, much easier on the body not to try and go back and forth.

OOPS

Well d/l movies online didn't last long as I was notified by Verizon that I was in violation of blah blah blah. Yeah well that is true, it is called stealing , so everything is deleted now and hopefully they won't have to give my info to the movie company, cos a 250000 fine is more than I can afford. I wonder how everyone else gets away with this stuff? I kept the movie that I paid for tho. Also, the rental house is rented, and to a stable type person at that, she is an Oncology nurse at the local hospital and all of her info is perfect. We checked her job and her previous rental and they were impeccable. Yay, no stress. Now if only we could sell our house( or find a handyman to take care of it cheaply). Everyone is sick here, the guys have a nasty cold, courtesy of the evil M-I-L) I must have an ear infection, because I get dizzy whenever I bend over or turn over in bed, things spin around. If it does't stop by Monday I guess I may actually go to the doc, maybe not. That is a  bad habit of most people that work or have worked in the medical field, you either become a hypochondriac or totally non compliant( that's where I am, I am the fool that treats myself) At least it gives me an excuse for being lazy for  a couple of days, falling over in public looks suspicious, yo know? The weather is still nasty and cold, rainy and overcast when it isn't raining, ah, spring in the Pacific Northwest, makes me miss the spring in the Pacific Southwest more everyday.

Day of Rest

Even tho we just put the rental in the paper we are on an overnighter, DaPunx can tell them to call back on Wednesday.Unfortunately, the spa is not open until Wednesday...no biggie I still have 90 minutes @ the spa at home. So where am I? I am currently sitting in my beautiful  hotel room at a casino while the guys play golf. You can see what I am doing,typing this! I am also burning DVD's, cos ya know I am a major multi-tasker! I have 2 more to  burn, then I will look for some more..I am happy that I have had Avatar since Feburary,  and I haven't even finished watching it yet. I guess it goes on sale in a few days, the 22nd, I think. I burned Sherlock Homes last night, I will see if I can find Alice In Wonderland after this. Kick Ass isn't available just yet, but I am sure it will be soon enough. If anyone has any movie suggestions, send them along. Well off to read all you lovely people that I read, almost everyday.
xx
punx

One more day

I should be through cleaning the rental house by tomorrow. I am very happy to have that out of the way. If the real estate market were better we would sell it and buy another one to flip, but it isn't, so we won't yet. I think that  the last renter used it for a meth house, but I don't know for sure. I do know she was raising marijuana, because you can legally do that here if you have a medical marijuana card, which she did. You are only allowed to grow 6 plants, but according to one room mate she had the entire garage full of plants...This is a weird state, you can carry a concealed weapon and grow dope. I have a permit to carry a gun, but don't. I don't grow pot either, but know a lot of people that I can get it from, if I want. The law says you can grow and use it for medical purposes, but that if you work somewhere that has a no drug policy, even if you have a card you can be fired if you fail a u.a.. I will be glad when the place is rented out and I can go get a massage;I got  a certificate for one for my birthday but haven't been able to schedual it yet.

Spring Cleaning

Today we are cleaning out the guest room, getting it ready for our son, Dapunx, to switch bedrooms because that room has a closet twice the size of his present room. We installed blackout curtins, moved all the furniture out and shampooed the carpet. That is because of one of the problems with feral cats is that they will always mark their territory. I try very hard to keep things as clean as possible, but they are kinda sneaky about it at times. So, first I vacuumed the $#!& out of the carpet, then got on my hands and knees and scrubbed down all the baseboards with vinegar and water to make sure there is no kitty odor in the room, spot treated all the spots on the carpet and then MrPunxxi shampooed it. In the interim, we indulged me in my favorite sport...throwing stuff out and rearranging the left over stuff. I have in the past 2 weeks donated 3 extra large (50 gallon) trash bags of stuff out of my closet...not all clothing mind you, but I had a lot of stuff in my closet because I took the clothes hanging bar out of it last year and put in 5 rows of shelves. But I decided it looked messy all the time and since we will never take out house off the market, you just never know when someone might pop in to preview the house. A strange thing is that most people would like to hang their clothes in the bedroom closet, but I turned another bedroom into a closet/workout room, it  even has a t.v. by the treadmill(aka clothes hanger). Anyway the satillite dish guy will be out to install the cable in the back bedroom so that  DaPunx can watch t.v. in there. So out went all but 2 of the shelves we installed, I moved the top  one up as far as I could and put the bar adaptors on and hung a new bar in there so it looks like a real closet, again.
MrPunxxi is sort of a pack rat type, so I have been making him watch the programs about hoarders . He is not that bad, because that is an actual mental illness, but I think my kids might be, but DaPunx can't do it since he lives here with us . I would like him to go back to a group home situation, but we haven't really checked into it up here. He awlays says he wants to save up his money and move to an apartment by himself, but having the mentality of an 8 year old makes it impossible.
Well that's all I'm doing for today because it's my birthday and I try to sluff off as much as possible on it!  Besides, tomorrow I have to start all over on the room he is moving out of, the new guest room.

it's ba-aa-a-aakkkk

Well, the Verizon guy came and went and confirmed what I already knew, that my dsl modem was dead. I told mr.punxxi that was the reason we couldn't get online, but as usual he decided that I am only a blonde chick, and therefore could not be right( naw, he just wanted them to check it out 1st) So I called mr punxxi up and told him and that I was going to get a new one. Since he was nearby, he asked were I was going, so I told him Staples, he says,"I'll meet you there". As soon as I walk into the store he is standing there holding just the one I wanted, and for a very good price,too. He tells me that the store guy says this is what you want. I told him that as long as it was compatible with Verizon, it would be fine. I had just looked up this particular combo modem/wifi, it was
$155.00 @ the Netgear online store but 99.00 @ Staples  . This was the first time that he has ever taken the initiative to try to buy something "tech" and at least he paid for it which is a 1st too! But no, he didn't try to install it, but that was easy. Now my next project is to switch the printer over to wifi!

Whine whine whine...

... yep, I'm all about the whines today, I will be offline for all practical purposes until Verizon decides to come and fix my DSL line. I haven't been on dial-up since 1996, it is intolerable!!!!!
xx
see ya all later

Happy Paddy's Day, saint or not

Well, last week we went to look at a new house, and even tho it had been listed at a million and a half when it originally went on the market, the bank is now selling it for a mere $543,000.00, It sits on top of a hill and has an ocean view, it is about 4500 sq. ft. but you  know what?  I could have drawn a better layout with my eyes shut!  Oh, it had a couple of nice features, and the possibility of a large profit down the road, but it just wasn't worth it to us. We are seriously going to try to sell the present rental we own, and look for another, to rehab and flip. We still have our house on the market, for the 2nd year, but since we don't have to sell it, it doesn't matter . Next month we will start doing serious open house days, and if we sell it we will have to find somewhere to move(yay), but we will still have to stay here in the bay area, until his mother joins his dad. Because of the economy, we aren't sure if we really want to move back to California or not,they have raised the sales tax down there to almost 10%, which is ridiculous. Anyway, so far the plan is to move to town to a house that needs little maintainance on the outside.
Mr. Punxxi is so very tired of rain, but who wouldn't be when you have 30 to 40 days in a row? Rain doesn't bother me much because I rarely go outside , but he being a maniac golfer, wants to golf in the sunshine for some reason...dunno why, he isn't gonna rust or anything :o)

oopsy

We are evicting our tenants, well actually we only want one of them to leave. The other says he wants to rent the house himself, and can afford the rent. The female that was there with the other two original tenants is a flake and has borrowed a lot of money from "new guy". According to him, she has had lots of family there ,loud parties, there are holes in the walls and she is a slob.  This is pretty much what I expect out of renters, but as long as the house is paying for itself, I don't care too much. It ultimately will be sold. Tomorrow we are going to look at a fantasy house up the hill from here. Fantasy because I know we will never buy it, unless I have won the lottery today ( I haven't looked yet). It looked pretty good looking in the windows, but tomorrow a realtor is going to let us in to look at it. It has views of the bay and the ocean it is on 3.19 acres and is a bit larger than this house. Since I have nothing to do anyway, I would have time to clean it. It is about 4600 sq ft, 4 car garage, nice deck, a kitchen to die for.I will take pictures of it tomorrow . It's fun to look even if it isn't feasible to even think we can swing a deal for it, but in this economy, who knows?

Feburary, where'd ya go???

Wow! This month is almost over , which is good because now we are past the anniversary and  St. Valentines day, the 11th and 14th respectively. We went up to Portland for a couple of days, had the car parked and never took it out again until we left.That is something we like, being able to walk all over the place and stop when and where we want, look at whatever strikes our fancy.  I don't usually drink at all because I am not overly fond of the taste of most alcohol, and having alcoholics on both sides of my family makes me somewhat careful with it.  But since it was anniversary night we had a bottle (2) of champagne. We were going to go out to a fancy steak house for dinner, but we did something so much more fun... we got sandwhiches and chips(crisps) from an Italian deli and had a picnic in our room, along with the champagne. Now that may seem weird to most people, but the fact is there are no Italian deli's in this part of the state, not even any within a 2-3 hour radius... you have no idea how much that sucks!!!! Just to order coldcuts, like coppacolio, would cost about 75-100 dollars, it's expensive stuff, but the shipping cost is the killer. We stock up when we go back to California, but it only lasts for so long. Did I mention that where we live, out here in the sticks, the biggest store we have is a Walmart Super center?  I don't care if nobody else likes to shop there, I love it! When you can save a couple of bucks per item, it is worth shopping there. It is also the largest employer in the area, since all those happy assed green people have killed off the logging and fishing industries. This place is where all the people that ran away to Canada in order to avoid the Viet Nam war came when Carter gave them all amnesty.. I will have to start taking pictures of all the ancient hippies up here. It is unfortunate that the whole town is pretty much dying, all the kids that go away for college, are not coming back here, there is nothing for them to do. They either leave the state, or move  up to Portland, as half the states population lives there. We have about 9000 people here, but I am interested to see what it is after they do the census. actually there are 200 people where I live, but we are pretty spread out.
I think we will be a little busier this year, we went to Portland, in May we are meeting a couple of my friends up in Seattle as they have to go to a nursing convention and then are spending a few days to look around after that. In June my youngest grandkid will be graduating from high school, so we will go down to California for that...and then the best part, in August we will go to Ann Arbor to visit the cool people( unless I can talk them into coming here) Oh yeah, next month is my birthday AND in May I will get my first social security check ..wheeeeeeeeeeeeee play money!!

Strange "thinks" aka part 5

As I have been writing down memories of childhood,  I am forced to admit I am missing years . I have been aware for many years that I do not remember anything about the years of 23-26. But going back further, I can see long periods of time that I have no recollection of at all. I don't know if it is from disassociation or just supressed. Then there are other times that I recall but that don't seem real at all, sort of pushed by the wayside. One of those is when I married a psychopath/wifebeater/bordeline personality putz. I must have been at a very low point then. But I barely recall that 10 year span, I guess that is a good thing. Two things I remember are when he fragmented my nose. You have mostly cartilage in your nose, but at the very top is a little bone that protrudes slightly , that is what he fragmented, he broke it in 5 pieces, oh well, I always wanted a nose job anyway, and since I worked in a hospital, our insurance covered 80% because it wasn't considered cosmetic, then the plastic surgeon said if I would do it at the primary hospital he worked at, he would give me even more of a discount( you usually get a "proffessional courtesy" discount). I had no problem with that and ended up with a 3800.00 nose job for 83.00!!! That was pretty cool. The second thing that I very clearly remember is  lying on the floor of the kitchen and him beating my head on the floor. He was using my hair to pound my head, and he was pulling out tons of hair. When I swept it up later it filled a shopping bag, of course if it had been compacted in there it wouldn't look like so much. I used to have very thick hair, even tho it is baby fine. Now it's about half as thick. I supported this jerk for the entire 10 years we were married..he would get a job and it might last the day. He did have one job that lasted a year, but he got fired and the excuse was that he had lied about his criminal record. Well that is neither here nor there, but once I decided that I would no longer support him, it pretty  much went downhill from there ( major sarcastic tone). I did two things for him that he should be very grateful for, I got him  enough information that he was able to get his Marine Corps discharge changed from dishonorable to general, which meant that he could go to school and collect money on the G. I. Bill.  Since he already knew how to weld, he took welding classes to get a certification and the government paid for it. Of course he decided that isn't what he wanted to do. He decided that he wanted to be a truck driver like his dad. I was checking out different programs that the state offered. One is a rehabilitation program that anyone in the state could use. They had a truck driving program and then they let you use their truck to take the diving test in.The fact that he already knew how to drive a truck( his dad taught him when he was a kid)made the program a piece of cake. He finally got a job driving cross country and also picked up a girl whose father owned a truck stop in New Mexico. I should look her up and send her a thank you note, she is welcome to him and all his b.s.
This lack of memory goes back pretty far, I remember  the first school that I went to, but all I remember is that we had little cots to "nap" on, so that we didn't have to sleep  on the floor, and that there was a fireplace in the room. Thats all I remember about the 1st year.I have one vague memory of the 3rd grade, neither here nor there, I remember the 4th  grade because the teacher was a cool guy, even if he did believe in corporal punishments.  His name was Mr. Morita and he was from Hawaii. We learned a whole lot about Hawaii, he even told us about the bombing of Pearl Harbor because he lived there and was 7 years old at the time. That is pretty detailed memory.I don't remember grades 5,6,or most of 7th. 8th I remember because that was the very first time I went to the same school for the whole year. High school I vaguely remember, but it's pretty fuzzy. I remember the day JFK got shot, I was at school and heard  a radio talking about him getting shot, it must have just happened. So I went into my next class and told everyone that the president had been shot. I was a class clown type so people didn't believe me, until about 2 minutes later when the announcement came over the P.A. It really  kind of annoys me to not have clear memories of growing up, since I can remember earlier things so well.Not enough to go back to therapy tho :o)  !

part 4

Since  we were allowed to wander at will, we played in the avocado groves most of the time. The only bad part is that people used to dump junk in there, and it was soon covered with leaves. Our grove and everybody elses ran together, there were no real demarcation lines.Anyway, I was playing in the next door grove, with the cult kids, barefoot as usual, and I jumped on a pile of leaves and landed on some shutters with nails in them, of course being the graceful little gazelle that I was, I managed to land on the nails, 5 rusty nails, 4 in one foot and 1 in the other. I was about 3 1/2 @ the time. I was afraid to tell anyone because I thought I would get in trouble because I had taken my shoes off. A couple of days later my mom was giving me a bath and she saw my feet and freaked out. I was in the Doctors office the next day, getting a tetanus shot...I was NOT happy about that!
After that we went back and got the shutters and pulled all the nails out and waxed the heck out of one side of the shutters and used them to "sled" down the tiers, so it had a good outcome. We also used to play in the oil fields because my grandpa worked there, they had lots of horses wandering around on the property, which of course made it thrilling to any little kid. My grandpa worked there because his cousin owned the fields, now here is the weirdest true thing  about my family I can tell you, at least that isn't a rather negative thing. His cousin was named Getty, as in J. Paul Getty,  rich guy extrordinaire. I never met any of them so it is only like a little footnote in my history. This guy looked just like my grandpa, their mothers we sisters. He owned a castle in England, it had been Anne Boleyns  home at one time, the cheap guy installed a pay phome because too many people came and made long distance calls from his house. Now if I were a multi-billionaire, I woulda let that slide, I think.
Here is something weird that I remember,when we lived in this house, I use to have hallucinations, there were always people running around the ceiling in the bedroom. Now most people will say, " no that was your over active imagination, it was just a dream". I will disagree with them forever, I was wide awake , I could be in or out of bed and still see and talk to them.
Why the hell would a laxative company make their product to look just like a Hershey bar( at least to a little kid)? Yep, that was me, the kid that ate an entire package of ExLax, becase it was a "candy bar".Anyway  the adults noticed that I had some chocolate on my face and asked me about and I told them that I ate the candy bar they "hid" in the bathroom. Mom says, show me and I did. They freaked and called the doc, who said just watch her. If that had happened today, I would have ended up in the hospital on an IV. I am surprised that I didn't die from that, since it would throw off the electrolytes and dehydrate you  terribly. I really don't know how I survived my childhood, I was a fearless in all things, except for being around people I didn't know, pretty much still very shy with strangers, but I am better now because I usually answer the phone or the door now, which I didn't for many years.  I find that I have different "me's", not that I am saying I am MPD( multiple personality disorder) but when I worked, I worked in jobs that I had to constantly interact with strangers and had no problem doing so, but as soon as I was in a different environment, I retreated to my other, painfully shy self. It was that way in school, I once walked out of a class because the teacher wanted me to stand in front of the class and speak for 2 minutes...couldn't do it, left school over it, that was my 1st year of high school.. aw, I digress yet again!  Well, now we are all bored, so I will go clean house, and watch the guys undecorate the outside of the house before it rains( a daily occurance here in the winter, at least it hasn't snowed here (yet) . I feel so sorry for you in Europe and the east coast here!
ttfn

hey!

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!

part 3

Ahhh, Christmas is over,now things can get back to their usual abnormality. Anyway  I was still living in the avocado grove, which was really a fab place to play, all the trees  were planted on tiers, it was a great forest of trees, about 3 acres worth and we were allowed to play in there to our hearts content. The garage backed up to the grove and we used to climb up and play on the roof, no one ever stopped us from playing anywhere. I don't think I would have let my 3 year old play on the roof, climb trees or wander around unsupervised, but times were different then. We used to see movies all the time and they influenced the games we played..yeah, people had to use their imaginations back then. Anyway this house had what you call a daylight basement in it, that means half was underground and the front was open to the yard, My grandpa had huge woodworking shop down there, and my grandma had a room she put all the food she canned  down there. She always had huge bags of old clothes that we used to costume ourselves in. Here is somethng I just thought of that happened in that house, and it illustrates what a hard headed kid I was. Gran had new wallpaper installed in her bedroom, I remember what it looked like to this day, it was darkish green with big pink flowers on it, very late 40's early 50's looking stuff . She had a dressing table in that room that she had make up on, lipstick, cream rouge, cold cream and  whatever other greasy stuff they used in 1951. I promptly decorated the new paper with it. My mother broke a wooden coat hanger over my butt. That pissed me off, so brainy me does it again for revenge, she breaks hanger number 2 over my arse.One more time, we both repeated our actions. I decided that wasn't the way to get revenge, so I climbed up in the bed with my favorite tool, a pair of scissors, and made cut outs of the sheets and blankets...that was a habit I had according to my mother. All I know is that I had 3 wooden coat hangers busted on me in one day.
I used to cut my hair off, if I ever  saw any scissors laying around, eventually they learned to put that stuff away. The first time I did that was before we moved out of the city and I was 2, I remember this stuff, I had long finger curls( which I hated)  So I was taking a nap ( ha! I rarely slept then or now)my gran had been embroidering something  but went outside to hang up the wash...DAA-DAH, I cut all my hair off, my mother took me to the barber shop and got me a boys haircut...I loved it, everyone thought I was my brothers twin, which to my 2 year old mind was a fabulous thing. Funny thing is everyone always thought my brother was such a beautiful baby girl, even in boys clothing and boy haircuts...damn, people are so dumb! Of course he was very pretty, I, on the other hand, honestly looked as if I were a Downs Syndrome kid. Last time I made that remark, people got very upset, but I have seen my baby pictures. 
Hey, I hope you all have a fabby New Year...I will have to wake up "grandpa" at midnight ,'cos he is such a day guy... but I will be awake and have a wee drinkie, my annual taste!

part 2

I guess if I start at the beginning, the first things I can remember is wearing a diaper(nappy) and my dad's cowboy boots and "playing" his guitar. I was pretty young less than 2 because my parents got divorced when I was 2. We went to live in a boarding house for awhile,the man was a proffessional fisherman, his wife stayed home and did boarding house stuff. My mom got a job and then we moved to an apartment, what I remember about that place was that it had a very old time  gas stove in it, you had to light it with a match, and it stood on tall skinny legs, it was pale yellow and light green, I have looked for a picture of one, but so far no luck. Then we moved in with my mothers parents so that my gram could watch us while mom worked, that was the house down the block from the other grandparents.I remember that house,better than the one I lived in, but I remember them both somewhat. My mother went to work before we got up and usually got home after we went to bed, so we spent all most all of our time with grandparents, as my father was pretty much absent from our lives. I wonder if he is alive sometimes, if he is, he is going to be 82 in March, his birthday is a week before mine. I know  he moved to Georgia 41 years ago, that was the last we heard from him, but it was not a big deal, I guess because he never showed any interest in his 1st 2 children..he had to replacements with his second wife, so those were the ones he cared for. Anyway, he is pretty immaterial in my lifescheme.
While we still lived with our grandparents in the city, I got a little black puppy, a Cocker Spaniel, named it Candy, have no idea why. I think she was a 3rd birthday present. I really loved that dog, but had a bad habit of using it's drinking water to make mud "pies"They kept telling me not to do it, but I was always hardheaded. One day the dog was gone and I was told she had run away because I was bad and always left her without water to drink.  I found out when I was about 10 that my grandfather had taken her to work with him and gave her to someone. I never forgot or forgave that, I think if they had told me the truth, that I was too young for a dog and that they sent it to live with someone I would have gotten over that. My grandfather was one of those old guys that thought that my brother walked on water, I was always told well J can do it because he's a boy or because he was older (25 months older, bfd!!!)
My brother was an interesting subject, he was a couple of years older, but he used to send me in to turn on the lights when it was dark, he also slept with his eyes open, I remember socking him in the head because I would talk to him and he wouldn't answer. Hey, a 3 year old doesn't know you can sleep with your eyes open, I just thought he was not answering to be mean. Shortly after I turned 3 my moms parents had a house built on their avocado ranch, so we moved out to the country with them. Of course since my mother worked in the city and we lived out there, we basically just saw her on the weekends.  more to follow... disjointed as this is, it is just how my brain works...I have been so hyper this week it is hard to sit here this long ttfn!

Wandering through my mind

I was reading Diana's blog, where she was talking about how the past has shaped her, she was remembering old boyfriends. I don't have that many interesting people that I know, at least not in real life.But blog friends are great and so much more interesting, maybe it's because they are mostly writing to amuse themselves, or at the very least people they don't know irl, or family. My family is/was very strange, I know my mother is dead, she died in 2001, I read it online, honestly I was playing around on a social security page and just typed in her name for giggles, and there it was, she had been dead for 4 or 5 years( closeknit lot, weren't we?)  It felt weird to read that,not sad or anything, it wasn't like she was much of a mother, I hadn't lived at home since I was 15, as I went out on a date and didn't come home for 3 days, she decided that I should continue my date from then on, and put my clothes on the porch so I would get the hint.Not that big a deal, really. It was an exciting life, drugs, rock and roll, burglaries and robberies to pay for life, That culminated in a fistfight with a cop, as they thought we had kidnapped a guy, but in reality we were just keeping him from walking out into the traffic in a stupor.That landed me in the youth authority, a step up( down?) from juvenile hall. I had been there, off and on from the age of 12, mostly as a chronic runaway and petty thief...nobody hires 12 year olds. That is all neither here nor there, just a thought that popped in to visit.
The runaway thing is what I have done since the age of 2 years old, not sure why, maybe always looking for the "greener grass". I seriously ran away every other day or so, starting at age 2, we lived with my maternal grandparents, and the paternal ones lived  halfway down the block. Everyday I would sneak out and hop on my trusty tricycle ( after stripping off every stitch of clothing,....such a rebel !) and peddle down to the other grams house. She would always ask if they knew I was there and of course I lied and said yes. She would then phone down the block and tell them I was there again.I out grew that wandering when we moved out to the "country", when I was about 3 1/2,( the naked wandering , not wandering) where my grandfather owned an avocado ranch.There were only 3 houses in the vacinity, and my brother and I would wander all over the hills to our hearts content, no one else was around most of the time. There were religious fanatics that lived down the hill from us...seriously cultish types, I still remember going to their house and we had to read out of the bible,(I could read by age 2 , all of my mothers children could) they did it daily and more than once.I quite liked their dog, a big English Springer Spaniel, named Malley..weird the stuff you can remember so many years later. I remember the kids that lived there, but not too well, there was a boy and girl that were both older than my brother and I , he being a little closer to their ages.Everyday that stupid cult kid would mouth off until my brother beat the crap out of him ...they must have been 6 or 7 at that time.I don't remember the girl just that she was there, don't know any of the names, except the dogs. Down across the street were a couple more kids, pretty old to us, probably 10 or 12. Their father was an undertaker, that's all I remember about them. The best part of living there was almost total freedom to come and go as I pleased, and this could be miles, no one bothered us.Dunno why, but wandering is ingrained in me, don't know what the hell I'm looking for, just adventure, probably, or to get away from me( that is highly likely) Okay ,that is enough disjointed rambling for today...I think I will write more stuff tomorrow, or not, I am a person of good intentions, not schedules!

I have this thing for shoes...

and I love high topped tennis shoes(aka trainers) So you know I couldn't resist these bad babies! They are kinda wide in the body so you can tuck jeans in them, plus there is an unzipped zipper in the back, 'cos you know I am much to lazy to lace, unlace, relace .I wonder why they didn't think to use speed laces like my lumberjack boots have?

Stormy Weather

I love the ocean when it is stormy weather...it is the only thing I will miss if we move away from here. This past weekend. waves were hitting 30+feet. It is actually hard to get a perspective from these pictures, but believe me, they were totally awesome! A couple of hours north of us they had a tornado, a category 1 to be sure as the winds weren't all that devastating, but they did do some damage.We frequently get winds here that gust up to 100 miles an hour, it is scary to watch the trees blowing around then, and wondering when one will come through the roof. Anyway, these are some storm pictures...sorry about the rain drops on the camera!

Almost Halloween( yay!!!!)

I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted a blog, but things are just busy right now, with constant house cleaning on the of chance that someone will come by and want to look at it or maybe even,"gasp" want to buy it! Things were going along swimmingly until last Thursday, and my least favorite person in the world came over for dinner, as everyone does on a typical Thursday night, and tripped over her feet and broke her hip...almost 6 years to the day her late husband did the same thing. Except he wasn't trying to be cute and sucking down the Drambuie when he fell.He didn't make it through the night when he had his surgery...she had hers Saturday and the surgery went well, except that she is not doing so well, last night they wanted to put her on a ventilator but we said no, but did let them give her a vasopressor to kick up her blood pressure.Then, today they gave her 2 units of blood to also help it up. She is a full no code, she knows what that is and has expressed her desire for no heroics.My husband told them today, no more stuff, just make her comfortable. She has been mostly incoherent and not waking up much and we are not sure how with it she is when she does. She is 95, has a pacemaker that needs to be replaced,but the docs won't do it because chances are she will not make it thru that. a knee that was replaced 20+ years ago that was supposed to last for 10 years...it is also the same leg where she just had the ball joint replaced. Her heart only works to a 15% capacity without the pacemaker and she has been trying to die since 1975...it's time to let her go! She had a very major heart attack in '75 and they didn't think she would make it, then about 18 years ago she was in a head on collision, with her side of the car taking the major hit. They didn't think she would make it thru that one, either. She can't hear very well, even with her hearing aid, can barely see, and after this she won't be able to indulge in her favorite pastime...shopping. My husband is her only child and he has a hard time understanding why people can't fathom that he has no problem with her just going to sleep. He says it's a good time, since she is not concious of what is going on, last time she was in the hospital she was terrified she was going to die...

Happy Humpday!

Well here we are, back from California and the great WARMTH....I really miss those nice hot days with unlimited sunshine! we got to meet our 22 year old grandson, visit with our 17 year old granddaughter, go to dinner at our favorite Italian resturant( the only one we actually ever go to)Went to a surprise birthday party for an 80 year old lady...she is so fun!That was a short trip, 4 days . The best part was I got to surprise my bestest best friend, Robin. I am so surprised that she never found out we were coming down, the look on her face when we drove up was worth the price of the trip! Of course I came home buggy, as I always seem to do.The sore throat and hacking are gone, but I still get tired kind of easily. I hope everyone is doing the very best they can.