crick in my neck

 I spent the whole weekend looking up!

Saturday evening was spent at the beach (Nova S has gorgeous beaches, both inland and Atlantic-Ocean-side) staring at the skies with a really nice group of people, looking for shooting stars. The company was fantastic, the food awesome, and the fire was great. And the scenery! The stars just go on **forever** out there. A patchwork of heavens.

It's easier to draw a deep breath out there, with the waves lapping the shore and stars streaking through the night. There was a moment when everything looked like a negative

Sunday was a different kind of look up - we had torrential thunderstorms, complete with pink jagged lightning and big old boomers. Rora, who has never met a storm she couldn't bark her indignation at, was in fine form. THEN we lost power, and everything...stopped. Bear woke me, muttering about checking the basement (we just had a very expensive experience with flooding and replacing things down there) and needless to say....I didn't sleep much after that.

But! dawn came. And now the day is sullen and grey, but warming. People are walking their dogs in shorts and the region is here, clipping the weeds that have grown in the cracks in the pavement. 

Happy Monday! It's going to be a great week, I can just feel it.

No, seriously

 Uncle.

First this summer we had a cold snap, then huge roaring forest fires in several areas of the province, and last week we had flooding.

I'm afraid to ask when the locusts are going to arrive.

Today: the sun is out, bicyclists are whizzing past, there's a lovely breeze - it's a lovely, hot summers day. 

But there's a part of me that's afraid to see what tomorrows weather will bring.

ketchup

I'm still here. Still nattering along, just being me. The kids are getting bold and big - can I even call Cass a kid anymore? Prolly not, really, since he's nineteen, bearded, and going to university (altho' Covid has made it less of a new adventure and more a taking classes online and not moving out of the house kind of thing) but he'll always be a kid to me. Roo is a junior in high school (HOW??) and coming into her own. She's making great grades, has two part-time jobs, and continues to be her own sparkly self. Bear is currently out on stress leave - this Covid mess has everyone twisted up. Aaaaand....we have a dog. We lost Jasper last spring, dithered a few months, then I jumped at the chance to foster, and....well, as my history shows, I'm an excellent foster parent, with attachment issues. They don't leave. Aurora the pocket shepherd (shep-border collie mix, as far as we can tell) has joined the pack. We are much richer for having her. I am very lucky to live where I do, Nova S is almost untouched (thank you, Premier McNeil, for your leadership and keeping us all safe) and we're all cautious but hopeful. Having the rest of my family still in the States, though, scares the bejesus out of me. Personally? Still the same weight, a lot more silver strands. Last night I realized I can wear Mom's wedding band now. It looks strange on my hand. I miss her fiercely somedays. The sun is out, although it's a bitterly cold day. The sky is a thousand colours of blue and the clouds look smudged like pastel crayons. It's a gorgeous day.

hodge-podge

alternate title: Things my post folder has had in it the last week

• I've been having a hard time finding stories to listen to lately. Water For Elephants, while a great book, does NOT come off well in audio, and the otherwise interesting-and -worth listening to story about the fifteen-year-old Indian prostitute? Not so great for when the kids are in the car.

• It's September, the kids are back to school, my rounds of much-loved committee meetings and volunteer work have begun, and I'm finally getting into a groove at work.

• B built the first fire tonight, as it's been a wee bit damp and rainy, and now I'm sitting here trying to look grateful and not actively sweat all over him while he chats on about the bread he made today and we talk about everything and nothing at all.

• I saw my first autumnal tree today. And while it was gorgeous and still-new and exciting enough so that I smiled at the sight, I'm just a wee bit horrified that summer slipped away so fast. It seems like I should have a tighter grip on the changing seasons by now - so much comes with age and maturity - why not that power?

celebrate good times

• I survived the photography talk. Actually, it went really well. And as Bear said:  'Those are your friends, anyway - it's not like they're going to bite you!' Well, yes. But I wanted to do it well.
• I've been blogging for five years, as of yesterday.
• This is my 1,200th post.
• I was astonished and gratified - one of the women at my talk said she would love to have me take pictures of her children - and now I'm thinking of starting a side line....or something. I do love it so.
• I did hot lunch at the school today (29 grilled cheese sandwiches, an immense pot of tomato soup) and asked Rosey's teacher about R's pronunciation of the 'th' sound. (She has (we think) an infected hangnail, and her cuticle is puffy and red and when squeezed, emits a high-pitched keening. Oh wait - that was R. Her 'flumb' is pus-y.) Her teacher looked across the lunchroom and called over the school's speech therapist, who right there and then agreed to see R this afternoon. And she did. How do I know? Because the school let Miss R call and tell me how she 'practiced my thumb, Mama. I practiced my thumb.'  Is it no wonder I love this school?
• Tomorrow is book club, and I can't wait. Our book is heating up, and everyone is enjoying it so far. I'm really delighted with that, because several of the members don't usually read for fun.
• So, good all around. How're you??

the one where I ask for help

*I use Bloglines. Happily. However, my blogroll is taking up too much space on this page and I want to go to a drop-down menu or some such. Anyone know of any way to make that happen?

*Good lentil soup recipe? I have an awesome split-pea and ham (which is really more split-pea w/pig product, since you throw bacon in the water with the peas and boil the flavour out of it, tossing the bacon before you add the peas to the ham)

*A good photo-storing application? I use Picasa and have been very happy with it, but now something is wrong and it keeps re-loading my pictures every time I open it. It's wearying.

*How do you save coloured leaves? B says they used to dip them in melted wax to preserve them. That sounds pretty to me, but all sorts of a fire hazard with small fingers around - we put them in heavy books between sheets of waxed paper. Any other methods?

*Can't think. Mighty Machines (the girl loooves it) is sucking all the intellect out my ears.....

now THAT's entertainment

Nothing like choking on your popcorn:

• The Slap Chop. Brought to you by the same oddball that screams about the ShamWow. Watch for the bit (:55) when he says 'You're going to love my nuts.' 'Scuse me? That's a little forward, isn't it?

• Cass and I went and saw Transformers II. It was wonderful and muscle-y and lots of robotics and explosions and the plot was every bad thing critics are saying about it. There was one point where the souls of the machines (???) talk to the hero at a gauzy cloudlike crucial plot point and I think I snorted aloud. The plot doesn't quite hang together, but the whole thing was absolutely joyous in its execution of every single small boys' dream - I had no problem picturing the grown writers of the film all hunkered down on the floor playing with the toys from their childhoods and then using every single battle scene they loved. Worth the money to go and see - if only for the way the smaller ones in the audience forget to blink after awhile - but you'll probably get a kick out of it too.

• And the latest thing the kids are crazy about is Kidz Bop - pop songs sung by children. I would probably enjoy this more if I could hear over the grinding of my teeth if it didn't remind me of cheap record albums hawked on tv when I was growing up. Anyone else remember K-tel?
  

death and obscene messages

• Seen today in a drive-thru: Spanking shiny new red truck with giant decals across the back that read: Ditch The Bitch and Go Goosin'! I was aghast.
  
• Explaining death to kids, even with lots of resources (thank you, funeral home!) and patience is a very hard thing. Both B and I are guilty of saying 'He's gone' which Rosey has decided means he could come back if we'd only let him. (We are so mean.) - so then I have to use blunt phrases like 'Papa's body' and 'Never going to see him again' which makes B flinch, and then I feel I'm being unkind and wounding him on purpose.
• We have a very sad little boy. Cass has been through death before with a dog and cat, so he understands the permanence of it, but he's never been through a visitation before. So I've been trying to describe what's going to be happening. (Bear flinches.)
  
• Visitation tomorrow, funeral Friday. We're going to take the kids to the visitation and decide about the funeral afterwards.
• Thank you, all of you, for your sweet messages of condolence. Y'all are wonderful people.
  

summat to say

Although it's not all that much, really....

• Foodgawker is the work of the devil. Or a really bad idea to scroll through at work, take your pick. Now I'm trapped making goodies for the school Spring Fair that are much more complicated than usual...my conscience won't let me whizz out a couple of chocolate cakes now, no no, must be fancier. And prettier. And dinner for the next few nights is going to be...different.


• From the department next to me, many many times a day: 'So I need my paperwork to register?' My thought (after many many times a day) Yes yes a thousand times yes. The pieces of paper your doctors office gave you are surprisingly not optional. (Not their response. They're friendly and not a bitter old snarky hag like the blogger next door.)


• I have three cats. Katie the Elder (who is slowing, bless her heart, but still can munch green stuff faster than a speeding bullet) makes it impossible to have flowers or plants in my house. Cass took care of that Sunday - I now have a lovely bouquet of paper flowers that I can keep forever, and never have to water, either. And my little purple girl gave me a long purple flower to match her purple shirt, so I'm good in the fresh flowers department, too.


• I know I'm running short on sleep when I think that my husband should be able to understand how to do my daughter's hair when I'm explaining it over the phone.

Me: Just take her bangs and the hair in front of her head and put it in a ponytail. Then pull it to the side a little so it's not sticking straight out of her head.

He: You want me to..... pull on her head?

Me: (crickets chirp) Wha?

He: I tried to put all her hair in a ponytail yesterday and it didn't work. It kept falling out.

Me: She does have barrettes, too, hon. Look, I don't care. But she runs into less walls when she can see where she's going.

He: (guffaws) Yeah.

• Election time is here again in Nova Scotia! Giant election signs are blooming everywhere like early flowers. It's pretty.

things I have learned this morning

* My husband rily, rily likes redheads. Who knew?

*Flavoured coffee and raisins DO NOT MIX. So much for the healthy breakfast.

*Excited dancing around the room can result in bruised shins. I'm hobbling a bit today. (And I'll share the good news soon. I'm still hugging it to myself in sheer delight and stunned disbelief. And no, am not with child.)

*An excited doctor who just came back from a conference? Will talk your ear off, conveniently forgetting you know nothing of what he is speaking of.

this post brought to you from Big Time-Wasters, Inc.

• It has rained and thundered and lightninged and rained again. The kids are squirrellier than a pack of rabid monkeys. Tomorrow I'm taking them to the beach. As long as it isn't storming, what do they care if they get wet?
• Eating too many salt-and-vinegar potato chips pickles your mouth. Weeally.
  
• McCain and Obama are even in the polls? wrings hands What's next?
• The beheading is taking up a lot of space in the news. So many unanswered questions.
• R took a bath tonight with her babies. They both are the kind that drink and wet, so they end up full of water. The best way to get the water out is to yank the dolls arms and legs up in the air and get as much water out of the 'pee hole' as you can. Right now there are two dolls in that position wedged among the faucets, staring out blankly as they do yoga. I did take a picture but the more I look at it the less I want to post it.... Anyway, I'll know when B gets home tomorrow because I'll hear the Jesus Christ! coming out of the bathroom when he goes in to have a shower.
• Also, in the 'Where The Hell Is My Head' category, I bought the second crop of plastic water bottles today. Why the WTHIMH designation? This second group, JUST LIKE the first one, is #7 plastic. My grandchildren are going to have overbites and fur if I don't straighten up. Must make list to put in purse......
• B has been working nights lately. He went on a call last night and forgot to take his mouth guard out. I guess when he was telling the patient to lie still and not struggle on the backboard one of the nurses burst out laughing and finally told him he sounded like Elmer Fudd.
  

Person Jesus Christ!

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