Contrary To Popular Belief…

I’m not dead.  I just feel like h.e. double hockey sticks.  I’ve been down with the worst cold I’ve had in a long time.  Started off with bubbling in my right ear.  Should’ve known something was coming on because usually it’s my left ear bubbling and that’s not an unusual thing for me.  My left ear is kinda stupid anyways, what with the tinnitus and partial deafness, but I digress…  Don’t you love that term?  There is something musical about it… I digress… much more so that I transgressed or, well, you get what I mean.  Anyhow, I’ve been down for a week with the cruddy cough, sinus drainage and throat irritation that aggravated the nasty cough.  I’ve been hitting the Sudafed, the Mucinex, the NyQuil and anything else that I thought might put a stop to all of the aforementioned symptoms. 

The saving grace in all this was that it happened during the Olympics and I’d already put everybody on notice that I would basically be unavailable for the duration of said Winter Games. I don’t know about you, but I think a vacation every couple of years is warranted and, again, I don’t know about you but I think it flat out sucks when you get sick on vacation.  That’s what you have sick days for …  even retired folks are entitled to sick days where you don’t have to do “honey-dos” or “want-to dos” but, dang, on vacation???!!!

Then there is the weirdness that happens when you put all that mixture of o.t.c. meds in the feverish boiling pot of your body.  I got to thinking about some strange things and for me to admit to thinking my thoughts were strange is, in and of itself, strange.  I mean my friends and family all tease me about having playdays in my head anyway and are used to me coming up with off the wall thoughts.

Last night I had turned off the t.v. and was playing on the computer,  a game that only required one finger to move on my mouse, not all ten fingers like to type this idiocy… I heard what sounded like someone crying, an adult, a woman, talking to someone like you would on a phone.  I brushed it off that it was probably something on the t.v. in the other room and then in a minute I heard it again. It was so real to me that  I got up, remember this is about 1 a.m., and looked into my cousin’s bedroom across the hall from mine to see if she was in distress about something, nope, she wasn’t even in bed yet.  I walked on into the dining area and looked into the den and she was reading, nothing wrong there, and I looked at Bro and told him I’d been taking too many drugs and was hearing things.  The show that he had on t.v. was one of those daily catch up the gossip “news” shows from the Olympic village and there was no crying woman on there.  I explained what I had heard and he said they had done a piece on Anna Nicole after her son died and she had been crying during the interview.  Whew… that explained the crying woman I was hearing… 

Now if I can figure out how to solve the problem of  “Indian drawers”, you know the kind, they always creep up on you, and figure out how to fix the “Free Willy” zipper on my jeans (even though I don’t have a Willy to free you know the zipper that opens up on it’s own) and get over this cold all will, once again, be right again in my zany world.

Just Another Snippet...

Before the Games get started for today.

Is it just my imagination or are all the competitors, especially those on the slopes, all handsome or beautiful and have great teeth and beautiful complexion?

Or is my eyesight going south just like the rest of me? If they are all purty I may have to rethink my feelings about living in a world with snow and ice 6 months a year.

Where You Will Find Me…

For the duration… I am an Olympics junkie and especially the winter Olympics. 

Underneath the flash spot you can see the reflection of my feet and SueSue’s back end.  They are very patient with me and both are usually up on the bed sleeping ‘watching’ with me.

Both of these were taken while watching the snowboard time trials.  I don’t see how those kids stay on their feet.  It really gets hairy when they start racing in the heats after the time trials.  There will be 4 racers on the course at a time and it’s kinda like a cross between snowboarding and freestyle wrestling.  There are bumps and falls and ducking under and jumping over downed boarders and the jumps and whoever is standing at the end of the run, the top two I think, will advance to the next race.  I enjoy these even more than the tricks and jumps of the half-pipe because of the skill needed to navigate the downhill drops and avoid the other boarders and outthink all the others to the gold.

So while I probably won’t be posting much for a bit… you’ll know where I am.  Watching every event I can on the winter sports…

Except for this evening.  I’m going to Norman to watch the OU Women’s basketball team play top ranked Connecticut women.  The ticket was one of my birthday presents and the weather is cooperating but after the game I will be watching the re-runs of whatever I missed while at the game.

BOOMER SOONER!!!

What Happened?

Chloe knew I was going to be gone for more than the afternoon when I got out my luggage to pack…

Suess knew, too…

You’d think that I was gonna be gone forever.  I told them I’d be back in just a few days but they don’t understand about birthdays.I came south to Fort Worth to visit with my family and do an early birthday celebration since my baby brother that shares my birthday has to work on Saturday.  I got up this morning and it was like deja vu all over again…

That’s my little pickup…  at 12:30 a.m.   I looked outside and it was so light and beautiful I grabbed my camera and went out in my jeans and a tee shirt to get “just a few” pictures.

I saw the street light shining on the snowy trees and I had to get my camera and see if I could capture the look of it to share with you all.  Then I would look and see something else…

And then look over here…

And how about over there?

The mail box and then with my hand in the shot for comparison…

Well, Bennett decided he couldn’t stand it for me to be out taking pictures without him getting in on the fun.

(photo by B. T. Gardner) Gotta give credit where credit is due.

We took pictures in the front, then the back…

The bird feeders…

The chiminea and the patio peach tree…

How about gathering around the patio table for a visit?

There are also lounge chairs around the pool…

And the bird bath that earlier in the day was being used by a morning dove to get a drink.  I didn’t have my camera at hand when my s.i.l. Diane yelled at Ben and me to come look… you’d see the dove looking around, then it would put it’s head down for a drink and you could barely see it’s back.

Snow on the back fence… note the tiki torch on the left side of the picture.  When we decided to go back out front I grabbed my coat and put it on and out we went and what did we find but an elephant frog…

This yard art frog that my middle Bro and I got for Ben for a birthday… there was so much snow that Diane and I decided that it looked like a green elephant. 

Ben got out his tripod to set up some timed pictures because there was no wind to deal with and the lightness of the night was too beautiful to pass up…

This was about a 20 second exposure.  I stood as still as I could.  This tree in their front yard is absolutely beautiful and we are praying that the limbs don’t break under the weight of the snow.  (photo by B.T. Gardner)

Another timed shot, about 30 seconds.  (photo by B.T. Gardner) This was taken about 12:45 a.m.

This is another one 30 second picture of the trees and the street light taken from up towards the front of the front yard…

              (courtesy again, B.T.Gardner)

Ben setting up for a timed photo… note the flannel lounge pants and an overcoat.  We know how to dress for the weather…

Another of Ben that I shot.  He would set up his shot and then hold his hands over his camera to try to protect it a bit from the snow.

For the really big finish to this extra long post… one more that Ben took with me on a timed shot…  I’m still 64 in this photo.

On Saturday I won’t be able to claim 64 any more but that’s okay since I don’t feel it or most times don’t act like it… and, like I told my baby brother, what a gift we were given to be able to share this night a day before our birthday. (Photo courtesy of B.T. Gardner)

Amen.

Six Words…

I was listening to NPR the other day driving back home from Norman and the interviewer was talking to two authors that had asked for and  collected a number of six word memoirs and published them. In listening to the interviewer and the authors it dawned on me that a person could write a six word memoir that could also work as an epitaph as well as a memoir.  It could define a certain time in someone’s life, maybe a period of pure joy or incredible sadness, a time of stress or of a loss of a loved one or a broken heart, the birth of a child or a move that took you away from your childhood friends. 

In other words, we could all write a six word memoir that would be a look into our inner selves, our souls in a manner of speaking, on a daily basis, even on some days an hourly basis, but if you recorded your own six word memoirs and then looked back on them in a week, a year or even in ten years and there would be perhaps only one or two that would really continue to be relevant and meaningful to you throughout your life.

My first six word phrase that leapt to my mind while I was listening to the program was, “I came, I saw, I laughed!”  I’ve decided to keep a notepad handy and start jotting down six word phrases that come to my mind and will occasionally re-visit this subject and share with you my six word phrases, both those that are good or bad, deep or shallow, dark or enlightening. 

So let me ask you… what six word phrase came to your mind while reading this post?  Are you willing to share it with others in this very public forum or do you chose to keep it to yourself because it leaves you feeling too vulnerable? And does this exercise interest you or intrigue you to start to learn more about yourself in only six word bites?

Or do you think I’m crazy?

Church Is Cancelled Tomorrow…

And when the Southern  Baptists cancel a church service you know the roads are not so good.  I decided that I’d take a walk and get some images to post for your visual enjoyment and perusal of awesome beauty.  It’s been gray the last couple of days but the trade-off has been beauty that stops me in my tracks and I have to be thankful for the things I am fortunate enough to see and appreciate.

That being said… here are some images from my world today.

 

 

Back at the house now.  Are you all getting a little chilly just looking at these photos?  I’ve got some more but I’ll save them for another day.  I hope you all are staying warm this weekend and enjoying your world as much as I’ve been enjoying mine.

When Were We Annexed By Vermont?

 

This was the color of my world today…

 

 

These photos have not been retouched or worked over or made to look like black and whites.  This was the color of my world today.

  This is in the front yard, a flower bed with grasses, beige from the fall dying back and this was taken in the same stroll as the above photos.

As was this woodpile.  So there was some color outdoors.

This is the branches of a mimosa tree off the back porch. I like the icicles straightness and yet the ice on the branches twists and turns and caught my eye… It’s like my brain on some days, orderly as all get out and then I’m off on a tangent that twists and turns with various threads of thoughts that sometimes brings me back to the orderliness and sometimes I don’t get back to the orderly place at all for a day or two…

Yes, I am that twisted with curiosity about my world.  But I still haven’t figured out when we were annexed by Vermont.  How about it Bonzer… have you heard anything about us being annexed?  ‘Cause if you think that’s what happened I’m going to have to learn how to ski.