Happy Holiday Weekend

Everything is good here (for the most part) in our neck of the woods. Its HOT and we are breathing in the pervasive smoke from the wildfires still burning in Beaufort Co. Its going on 2 months and they STILL can't get those fires out with all the heat and drought going on in this eastern part of the state. Sometimes things are fine, but then the wind shifts and before you know it, its smokey and hard to breathe. But what can you do? Hope they will be able to get it all under control soon.

We are dealing with bears (of all things) here. This one bear has set up a home right here around our yard. We have seen him several times lately, walking the edge of the woods, crossing the road in front of our house....He is busy, I guess. I have a feeling there are more of them out there, because some people have spotted a group of 3 walking around not even a mile from here. But this guy is the only one we see on a regular basis:



This picture was taken just beside the barn on the edge of the woods. Bruce was just a few yards away, all excited. I was hyperventilating because bears can be dangerous. I finally threatened to call 911 if Bruce didn't back off and let the bear go on his way. But seriously? I am a little bit nervous outside now. I am fine inside the fenced yard, but beyond that it is a gamble. We used to walk all over the property, through the woods...there are tons of wild blackberries out there.
But not this year. Not with Yogi and friends on the prowl.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good holiday weekend. We are going to Wilmington to spend some time with Jeanne and Calvin and Greg and Lori and all the nieces. Beach tomorrow! I need a break from the bears....LOL.

Happy 4th to everybody!

Topsy Turvy

I haven't written in a while because my life is feeling a little topsy turvy at the moment. I am trying to make some big changes. The last round of blood tests scared me a little(ok really a lot, but I am trying not to panic). So I am making life adjustments, fewer medications, more natural supplements, healthier diet, exercise (all under the watch of our doc, so I am not just taking chances with dropping meds with no direction). Its all for the long-term good, but it is taking its toll in the interim. Its stressful, but I know it will eventually all balance itself out. My body just has to get used to healthier living and fewer medications.

I was given a 3 month time-frame to make these changes. I need to lower my cholesterol, and blood glucose a little bit or I am facing taking even MORE medication. My levels weren't outrageous, and the 2nd round of tests came back that these things were only slightly elevated....but definitely borderline. I had the feeling that it was now or never. So....its motivating. I am working at it. If there is improvement, even a little bit, then hopefully the doc will give me another 3 months to work on it further.

It's hard though. I believe that it will get easier as these things become habit...right? Its just a matter of time. And meanwhile, if I am not here blogging away about the details of our lives as often as usual, just know its because I am struggling a little, but it will be well worth it eventually. Hopefully....wish me luck. :) And whenever I need a little something to make me smile, I just look at this:



Is this not the cutest thing you have EVER seen?

Soon

Smash the Mole

There are things that have issues in my life right now. This includes (but is not limited to):

-My oven. I know I posted about how the bottom element stopped working and almost ruined Christmas dinner. Well, Bruce replaced it and for a while that seemed to have helped it. Now we are having the problem again...only part time. Sometimes it takes forever to preheat the oven. If I can ever get it to the right temp then it does fine.
I am not thrilled about expensive repairs, OR buying a new stove, so I am just taking advantage of the fact that summer is not a time to do a whole lot of baking. Cold watermelon is every bit as good as cookies when its hot. Right?

-My car. The check engine (or service engine soon) light came on over a week ago. Bruce changed the air filter and the pvc (or is it pcv???) valve that needs to be replaced periodically. The light went out for days. Today it popped back on again.
What a pain. The car drives fine. It doesn't skip or cut off or run badly in any way. But that light mocks me, and I wish it would go off. I have no idea what the next step is to get the thing fixed. Bruce has a code reader that plugs in to the car's computer system so maybe that will reveal what needs to be done.

-Our AC in our bedroom. Our bedroom is the hottest room in the whole house. Bruce went around partially closing vents off in rooms we rarely use (Erica's room, bathroom and guest room mainly) to try and force more cold air into our room. But the air flow is so slight you can barely feel it coming out of our vents. Even with the rest of them almost closed. Something is blocking the air from getting into our room and now we need to figure out whats going on with the air ducts upstairs in the attic. It has to be a problem with the ducts because its blowing out plenty of cold air in every other room. We have temporarily helped the issue by placing a fan right in our doorway. It seems to be moving the cooler air into our room, but still....there has got to be something done about it.

Oh well, just a few things on the never ending list of stuff that really needs to be done. We make a little bit of progress here and there and then something else just comes up all over again. Life is kind of like that carnival game "Smash the Mole".
You hit him back down into the hole and another pops up again. I think it could drive you crazy if you let it.

Also, speaking of moles, our cat Bitty was out in the cat enclosure yard this evening and when I went out to get her I saw she had something in her mouth. I thought it was a frog or a lizard, so I hurried down the steps to try and rescue whatever poor animal was suffering her wrath. I got a few steps away from her, and I could see that it wasn't a lizard. It was this dark little thing and it was making a horrible squeaking/hissing sound. It sounded like pure unadulterated EVIL. I had no idea what it was but I went inside and told Bruce to go figure it out. It turned out to be a baby mole. I thought Bruce would kill it because these darned moles have torn up whole sections of our yard. But he put the hissing nasty little thing in a plastic container and carried it off to be released somewhere across the road in a field. Yuck. Bitty hadn't harmed it, but she had certainly pissed that mole off. No wonder these things stay underground though....they are UGLY!!

Sunday morning....

Its a lazy Sunday morning...I try hard to make it count because by dinnertime this evening I will be feeling dread for Monday morning. It was kind of a lazy Saturday too. Jeanne commented just a short while ago that she woke up with neck pain for no particular reason. Well, I woke up on Friday with ...well...kind of side rib pain. Find your ribs on the right and then follow straight around to under the arm and a little around the back. Thats where it is. It is definitely a pulled muscle, but how? How can you pull a muscle while sleeping? I tried think what I could have possibly done on Thursday to strain a muscle....and the only thing I can think of is that I took 2 cats to the vet. Omen is a big cat, and I was holding her carrier on the right side, because that is my strongest hand. Normally, with 1 cat I don't think it would have been a problem. But with 2 carriers it was kind of awkward, opening doors, swinging carriers into cars, and onto vet tables. I don't know if that was it. But I can't think of another single thing unless I was sleepwalking and got all wild and crazy.

So anyway, I ran errands, did laundry, and took care of some picky little chores around the house that I keep putting off. Hemming some stuff, cleaning out old make up that collects somehow. Nothing much because I NEED this muscle pain to heal before work tomorrow. It seems a bit better this morning, so hopefully its going away. I won't be getting too wild and crazy today either just to be sure.

Anyway, nothing else is going on. Everything is good here. The kids are fine. I talked to Stephen on Friday and Erica on Saturday. It was in the upper 90's here all last week, which is horrifying for mid-June. I dedicate a post to this issue every single year, but let me reiterate: I HATE, LOATHE, DETEST, wish I could KILL and DESTROY summer. Just the thought of it, of blistering sun, of sweating, of humidity makes me insane with rage, which only serves to make me hotter. If I could hibernate in a cool dark place for the months of July and August, I so would. Although lately, with global warming or whatever unusual weather patterns we are having, I am going to have to extend my hibernation to June through September. Pity, cuz I am going to totally miss my birthday then.

Shoes!

One of my favorite subjects....SHOES!! I have searched the web to find some of the ugliest shoes in the world. Behold:

Going barefoot might be more comfortable than these:



I hope they didn't kill direct tv's tiny giraffe to make these:



Prisms:



Baroque Wedges:



I don't even know what these are:



Can you imagine walking around this with bird head sticking up from the top of your feet?



Shoes??? Or pants???



And lastly, not really ugly shoes, but the most expensive shoes in the world. They are made of solid gold and 2,200 diamonds. I can't imagine that would be terribly comfortably, but its not likely I am going to be wearing these any time soon. They are listed for £140,000. Which translates roughly into 230,000 us dollars. Yikes!

End of the Weekend

The ending of my weekend always makes me a little sad. It goes by all too quickly and suddenly its Monday morning again. This weekend we didn't get a whole lot done. Yesterday I went in to work for a while to check on my new sub. She seemed to be doing ok, so I called and got worked in to the busy schedule of my nail salon. Henry's Nails. Its hands down the best nail salon in town. I went to I can't tell you how many places before, but the work that Henry and his staff do lasts. Usually for 2-3 weeks. And that is a huge plus. Unfortunately, because its good, it is also hard to get an appointment. I've been going long enough that Henry or his wife Julie will always try to work me in, but sometimes it means waiting. Oh well...it is worth the wait. You would never know there was a recession when you see the number of people in there getting manicures, pedicures, eyebrows done....Its crazy. The twice a month manicure is one of my guilty pleasures. Actually, I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. I deserve it. Obviously. Haha. No, seriously, working as a mail carrier is hell on the hands. I can't keep my nails looking presentable without a little help from Henry.

We were going to have a cook out today with our friends, Chris and Jessica. But then Chris got sick. He thought it was a migraine at first, but after it lingered for 3 days and started causing other problems, like an upset stomach, he decided it must be some kind of hellish virus. Oh well, it rained today anyway. Not a day for grilling outside. I spent my afternoon cleaning out the fridge. Really cleaning it. Throwing out anything out of date and scrubbing down all the shelves. And then I did a grocery store run because the fridge looked kind of bare.

Sometime around 4ish we had a break in the weather and decided to go ahead and take the cats outside for their daily backyard adventure. I know it was much earlier than usual but we had more storms forecasted for later (which never materialized so oh well). I was curious to see what the difference in time would do. And just as I thought, right around 7, even though they had already had their outdoor time, Bitty started "telling" us that she wanted to go out again. LOL. She can be so insistent.
We didn't go out again though. The rain has left us so humid that it is disgusting.
Hopefully we will have drier weather coming in for the rest of the week. I can't have Bitty copping an attitude with us.

So there you have it. My boring weekend, which is fine with me really. Boring beats working any day of the week. My highlights were a visit to get my nails done, and a trip to the grocery store. LOL. Throw in a lot of laundry, and that is the sum total of what I did. Woo Hoo, try not to get too excited about that. :)