Sunday, July 31, 2011

Sunday-11:15am

Okay--technology hasn't exactly been my BFF lately--LOL!
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First the laptop wouldn't recognize my wireless printer, you may recall. Well, last Wednesday it decided it didn't recognize the wireless internet, either. My backup laptop--well, Dagan took that with him to update last time they were here. My TV still had internet, so I knew it wasn't that the internet was down. My phone screen is so small...but--remember how I had forgotten all about about the TV being a computer last time the laptop had issues?
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Well, with my poor vision, I decided to just grab a folding table and pull up a chair. Set myself up right smack in front of the big screen with my keyboard and mouse--and emailed Dagan and Leah on my TV. When I wasn't using the keyboard I just pulled the chair around next to the table to get it out of the way. Well, the change in furniture was immediately intriguing to you-know-who!
Karma claimed the chair as soon as I left it...
...and she used the bottom of the table to rub and scratch her own head. Always thinking, she is.
Now, the TV computer is Microsoft, a different system than I'm used to now, and not set up with all the tabs that I am used to (Leah sets them up for me). It doesn't even have the tool bar with edit and such...so I was at a loss how to do some things. So I just used it to read my gmail and answer emails. At least I kept up with something the last four days--LOL!
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Dagan called me yesterday afternoon and talked me thru what to do. Had to shut down the laptop, disconnect the internet, and restart them. I figured it would be something pretty easy--just didn't know what to do. Since then, I have been catching up with youtube and blogger friends and my old yahoo mail account. Whew!
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Meanwhile, the TV has also been acting up. Well, the TV computer and/or the TV. Been crashing itself, rebooting, and then the screen has moved on me. Crashed about four times I think in the last 10 days and the screen went goofy two different ways. The last time it crashed it went back to normal--knock on wood! Which was another reason I didn't do as much online on the TV.
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So--there you have it. Why I have been gone for a little while. :) Not that I'm not gone for four days sometimes, but I usually keep up with comments on other blogs. Not really a big deal. I wasn't totally cut off from the outside world when I had email, right? :)
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Other than that, it has been about the same around here. A bit cooler lately (80s) but, even when it is in the 60s or low 70s at night, been 75-90% humidity. So, I am still inside with the AC on. Seems a shame when the temps are so nice at night, but I am sore enough without the humidity added into the mix--LOL!
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We've had a little sun here and there, but a lot of this!
Clouds and rain.
I watched Source Code and Winter in Wartime. Both of them were really good! Winter in Wartime is Dutch with subtitles, but was riveting. Worth "reading" this movie, in my opinion. I don't want to say too much about either of them. Wouldn't want to ruin anything. But I think they both have trailers you can watch.
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Karma cracked me up! I suppose because she'd never been able to be that close to the big TV she became entranced with watching movies with me that first night. The one she is watching here was on instant Netflix. That's Keira Knightly in The Edge of Love--which was so boring to me that I quit watching it. Normally, if I can't be interested in half an hour (sometimes less) I don't want to waste my time and just try something else. Especially when it comes to the instant movies.
Sorry Keira. Karma was much more into the movie than I was.
Meanwhile...the herbs have all made an appearance now!
Including the catnip!! (Fingers crossed.)
Yesterday was another grey day. A storm rolled thru in the morning and there was a crack of thunder so loud that sleeping Karma leapt up and ran across the room! Was right over our heads, I think.
Today the sun has been out all morning. Yes, I have been back on days this weekend!! Tada! Nice! :):)
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The latest weird thing they are doing in the building is unhooking the magnets on random fire doors. Even the ones that close off the elevator. The frustrating thing to me is that I am too dang short to reach way up there to hook those magnets back together to keep the door open again. Sometimes I do wish I was taller. Not often--but lately with the goofy door shenanigans a few more inches would be just the ticket. Not that I can't open them and get through--but I feel badly that I can't fix it for the next person, you know? At least they have not done much at all to the metal sheeting on the elevator door, though...knock on wood. Maybe soaking the elevator floor and the fire doors are enough entertainment for now--ROFL! ;)
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Anyways, I am back online. [Knock on wood! Have really become quite superstitious about making statements like that lately--LOL!] Let's just say...hope to be back soon. ;)
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"A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away."
Arabian Proverb

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Wednesday-2:30am

Well, the camera didn't do it justice, but I got a shot of the sky after I talked to you...
...and the sunrise.
When I took the pictures it was only 63 degrees! But the humidity was 84%. Still no opening up the apartment for me.
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Karma wanted to sleep out on the porch in the sun, of course. Get while the gettin' is good!
She was really conked out. Usually notices me at the door. Out like a light. Soakin' up the rays. ;)
The arugula is coming along nicely...
...and has been joined by basil...
...and I think these skinny little buddies were thyme. I know--silly to be so excited about herbs, but I have never grown any but some chives many years ago.
Karma hasn't noticed them. It would be difficult for her to get to them since they take up the entire table--LOL! She'd have to stand on the glider chair to try to reach them...and that chair wiggles and is all metal, so she doesn't like it much. I am hoping the herbs will be safe from cat chomping for a while. ;)
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Sure!
Figures!
I take a shot that shows the road is half open (and was for days) and now this is what sat there all day yesterday.
That big old truck blocked the entire road. I have to giggle. This connecting road must be waaaay down on the road crew's priority list--LOL! I think they're using it for parking!
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I woke up at midnight without a lot of sleep...again. So, I emailed Dagan and Leah to cancel for tonight. This time it is me--hehe! Anyways, I had a brand new version of incorporating the pain into my dream--LOL! Sometimes when I wake up I just have to shake my head and smile. This time I was walking outside in tall grass and was swarmed by a horde of mosquitoes. I mean a black, thick blanket of them all over my body biting me. So many I would have looked like a black bear--hehe! That was a new one. *still shaking head*
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So, because I am really just too sore to sit here very much longer, I'll have to try to write about Flowers and Garbage next time. I apologize. Just the way life goes sometimes, right? I do have a couple Netflix movies to keep me company that have been sitting here for a couple days and books calling out to be read. I shall have a quiet contented night, never fear. Karma loves my R&R days. Life is good.
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Have a sweet day!! :):)
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"So much has been given to me; I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied."
Helen Keller

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Tuesday-4:45am

The rain stopped. The clouds lifted. We had a day of blue skies and sunshine yesterday! TaDa!! (Well, at least until afternoon while I was awake.)
The new connecting road? Well, there are no blockades on half of it, but the truck and equipment are still parked right there on the road (surrounded by orange cones, Iggy). I see vehicles using the road on occasion--scooting across. I do hope the kids on their bicycles will stay off of it now that it is "apparently" open.
As long as I was checking the road...nope...the garage roof on that one building still looks terrible. I think it's lost a few more shingles in the recent storms. If you look at the last picture and this one...am I also seeing some errant shingles on some other garage roofs? *sigh*
Somebody was happy to see the sun! Miss Karma was rubbing her own head on the carpet!
I know--I should have gotten video. I just don't think of it. She flipped her head upside-down and rubbed the top of her own head. Such a goombah!
So...what do I do in the middle of the night while you are sleeping? Well, I finished off five bookcards yesterday...soooo...just had to make a few more, of course--my supply is low. I have been wishing I had some handmade paper, but all those supplies are over at Leah's. Digging about I came across the 12 X 12 handmade paper packs I got at such a bargain quite a long time ago. Happy me! May not be my own handmade paper, but I was excited. There were two different styles of inclusions, so I took two sheets to cut down to make four covers. Even had some extra pieces left over to use for something else. :)
Dying to use some more of the french writing tablet paper I have fallen in love with. ;) Folded, punched holes, and sewed them up with some baby-yellow embroidery thread.
Five sheets in each one--so 20 sheets both sides. And no problem writing on both sides of this fancy paper with fountain pens, either. (Do I sound gleeful?)
Cut down a couple more writing guides for this size page--which is a little different than my scrapbook paper bookcards I usually make.
I do just love this Clairefontaine paper. Don't get bleed-thru and not much shadowing and so smooth that a fountain pen just glides across it slick as can be. Ahhh! Nothing like making hand-writing even a little more fun for me, right? LOLOL! These four, plus a scrapbook paper one, are already all earmarked. Envelopes addressed and one has been started already.
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Caroline comes this afternoon. I hope I'm not dragging too badly when she's here. Been up since midnight. She's seen me in pretty bad shape before...in my robe...not even able to get dressed, so yawning is nothing--hehe! Oooo--the sky is pink and blue and yellow. I need to see if I can get a decent picture. I promise to tell you soon about the "Flowers and Garbage" story...
Happy Tuesday!!
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"The fragrance always remains on the hand that gives the rose."
Gandhi

Monday, July 25, 2011

Monday-1am

Brief visits with the sun (mine are probably even briefer because I'm sleeping during the day like a vampire right now--LOL!)...
...are cut off by the return of the storm clouds.
As beautiful as they are, I'd rather we didn't see them at all for a couple of weeks, please. ;)
In fact, it has been raining since I got up a few hours ago. Not a thunderstorm this time--just constant, steady rain pattering against the windows and the air conditioner in the quiet of the night.
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Somebody must love a good lightning storm--LOL! The Arugula was popping up less than two days after Leah potted it!
Just wanted to pop in and say hi. If Karma wasn't zonked out in her cat bed, she'd say hi, too.
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The following quote reminded me of a concept I was "given" almost 30 years ago and tried to write down. To those who know me well--do you remember "Flowers and Garbage"? Does anyone happen to have a copy?
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"An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for the love is measured by its own fullness, not by its reception."
Harold Loukes (Quaker)

Friday, July 22, 2011

Friday-9:45pm--Seven random things

Round the clock I go--LOL!
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The temps have now dropped into the upper 70s to upper 80s, but the humidity climbed right back up to 67% today. Karma can take it, tho. She was back out sleeping for hours on the other little table on the porch this morning. Happy camper!
Do these clouds look like they are in kahoots...
...for another storm tonight? That's the rumor.
Got an award on Iggy's blog!
You know I don't normally do awards (just figured out right now how to nab the picture and put it on here), but I thought I could at least try to think of seven random things about myself. I don't pass them on--but I'll challenge any readers who are game to post seven random things about yourself. I'd love to read them!! ;)
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First of all, I would be hard pressed to think of anything that the people who actually know me don't know already--LOL! But I guess my new and newish blog friends don't know a lot of things about me--so, here goes. I'll start out with some of the more interesting facts from my youth and see where I end up--LOL!
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1. I love animals and have owned: dogs, cats, parakeets, half moon conure, chattering lori, cockatiels, African Greys, rats, hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, frogs, toads, turtles, skinks, horned toads, geckos, soap dish crabs, salamanders, all kinds of fresh water fish, newts, tree frogs, axolotls, chameleons, African underwater frogs, an iguana, and a skunk. (I'm sure I missed some.) I have rescued: newborn kittens, baby birds, baby red squirrel, mice, toads, pigeon, doves, dogs, cats, and a bat. Dawdled behind on a grade school field trip to Carlos Avery Game Farm and played with a newly captured wolf (she was like a lonely big dog--I'd rub and scruff her neck through the bars and she'd race in a circle and come back for more) until the trembling guide came back and snatched me away from her. Learned that animals are more likely than humans to react to loving intent.

2. Late 60s was an exciting time. Messed up after I was raped, I ran away to Canada to join a commune with a girlfriend, one guy avoiding the draft, and another guy who was home from basic and didn't want to go to Nam. (Who brings an iron and curlers to a hippie commune--a naive Minnesotan.) We never found a commune, us girls couldn't get visas--were home in two weeks. If we hadn't called for money to get home we would have been on the news as missing persons the next day. Learned you cannot run away from your troubles. You just carry them with you, so you might as well deal with them where you stand.

3. After Canada--lived in an apartment in Anoka with four other girls and I took in street people all winter. Back then they were runaways and other teenagers mostly. I fed them big vats of goolash, gave the first arrivals food & what we could spare to lay their heads on, let them sleep on the floor, no alcohol/drugs or paraphernalia allowed (we got busted on occasion), and nobody allowed in after a cut off time (I seem to remember it was 2am and the roomies demanded I change it to midnight). Yup! This flower child would have loved to run a hostel back then or live in a commune. Learned even the rough, scary customers are grateful for kindness. Looks can be very deceiving.

4. Long story, but because I could (with help from GA) quickly ease someone down off a bummer (acid/mescaline), people started showing up at the apartment door delivering me freaked out strangers. My roommates and everybody else would rapidly split to spend the night elsewhere. Well, these strangers were high for 8-10 hours and I'd be right with them into the next day...and there was often screaming, crying...and occasionally things got broken in those first few minutes. I went to work with no sleep if it happened during the week, but it was worth it. Learned that it's a core level thing with me to comfort others and it is good for my soul. Seemed to help them, too. LOL! ;)

5. Rent money stolen. We lost the apartment. I ended up living alone on the streets in Anoka from spring to fall. Sleeping in the park by the river during the day (safer to be awake at night), getting to know the cops by name, and having a lot of the folks I had taken care of all winter helping me out with food and cigarettes when they could. Learned that a lot of things we believe are necessities are really not...people who have almost nothing themselves still give to others...and to never forget what it is like to have a roof over your head, a comfortable bed to sleep in, food in your belly, and a hot shower. I learned how to hug that summer. Became known as "the mad hugger". Learned there's nothing better on earth than to have people smile when they lay eyes on you...and people remember kindness.

6. I have had a lot of jobs: printing company assembling pamphlets and small magazines, factory where I screwed together screen doors, another checking plastic pop tops for dish soap, checking popcorn bag rolls after printing (where I hurt my fingers & arm), three different pet shops (one I worked for him three separate times), a couple of waitress jobs, Walmart jewelry dept, insurance office, two different handicapped schools, day care teacher, drove mentally ill to appointments & ran their rec group, independent senior building (four jobs at once there!), and Concordia Language Villages offices. Learned that I could walk into situations I knew absolutely nothing about and learn on my feet running (no matter if I was always so nervous on first days I was sure I was going to barf)...to do my very best no matter what I was doing...that I loved working with people and animals...and that our society doesn't care much for our non-productive members (children, seniors, disabled, mentally ill).

7. I've come close enough to death to know that my life doesn't flash before my eyes and I am ready to go at a moments notice. Almost drown when around ten (unconscious, CPR, and the whole nine yards). Fridley Tornadoes watching the roof blow off in sections in the cafeteria during the science fair. Raped and beaten and told flat out that they were going to kill me. Learned that your life can be totally turned upsidedown in a matter of seconds...that I have a "safe place" inside of me that nobody can touch...and life is precious and short, so live it proudly and honestly like today is your last. One day it will be. Meanwhile...Enjoy!!...Hug!! Be the best damn person you can be!! Hopefully somebody will smile wide when they lay eyes on you. :):)
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"The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitudes."
Viktor Frankl

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Thursday-5:30pm

I think I have come to associate these deep orange sunrises with hades weather.
Early Monday morning (around 4am) I was getting ready for bed and the sirens went off. No surprise. The AC hadn't been able to keep up with the heat and humidity. Had a heat index of between 105-114 this week until now. Still hot, but the humidity has dropped down to 33% today!!
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Anyways, the sirens went off--twice--because of straight line winds and favorable tornado conditions. Karma and I spent an hour and twenty minutes in the bathroom as the storm passed slowly over the Fargo-Moorhead area. I actually watched the news afterwards and took some pictures.
We had places that reported 2-3 inches of rain in 20 minutes.
These flooded streets are in my neck of the woods, as they say.
There was another crazy lightning storm with this one and hail, too. (It's actually cooling to hear the hail above your head on third floor while you're stuck in a hot bathroom--LOL!)
No tornado, but the winds did some damage--fences, etc--some more trees downed.
This big one landed on a car.
I mentioned before that I heard that about a quarter of the fields in North Dakota never got planted...well, this isn't good for the ones that were.
Cornfields under water. Let's hope it drained away fast, right?
Dagan and Leah made it over last night. Leah set up on the floor to do some of the potting. She tears apart a big trash bag and tapes it together to make a big plastic sheet to work on that you can just gently fold up and throw away. :)
Just proof of how meticulous and anal she and I can be--LOL! Leah didn't make a mess at all. Used the big empty planter to hold the potting soil.
I told her to pass on the two hanging pots because we don't have the hardware to hang them up yet. And it was SOOO hot and humid outside that I thought the philodendron would go into shock to be brought inside where it was cooler--and then it would have to sit someplace on the floor in the coming week or so. We left it hanging on the porch and will finish with the repotting maybe next week or whenever.
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They brought me over a fern, too. Going to repot that too and hang it. It is in one of those outdoor plastic hanging pots right now, but the plastic hook was too large for the smaller ceiling hook in the corner of the porch so they left it sitting on the metal glider chair. (Not that I realized why they left it on the chair--LOL!)
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This is what it looked on the porch like this morning.
Leah put new dirt in the planter I've been using for Karma's cat grass and we planted catnip. Have never tried to grow catnip. It gets tall and sounds like it is a bit tricky to get started. You are supposed to kind of germinate them and start the seedlings in small pots...but we tried just planting about 16 seeds in this planter and we'll see what happens. If anything.
Leah planted the herb pots for me. This is that set I bought with the seed disks that I was expecting to have much smaller pots--LOL! They take up the whole little table out there. :)
Anyways, instead of passing out in the heat on the porch like Karma has been doing (below)--last night she was eating the fern out there in the dark! I had to catch her and carry her inside. She was not happy with me.
But--I googled plants that are toxic for cats...yup! Ferns are on the list. So no matter how annoyed and disgusted Karma was with me, she wasn't let out on the porch for the rest of the night.
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This morning I got out the stool and tried to hang the fern in the corner of the porch. That is when it dawned on me why they had left it on the chair--duh! Didn't fit on that smaller hook. So I hauled it inside--trying not to trip on a begging cat circling my feet--and hung it in the livingroom.
There were small pieces of fern everywhere! After a long session with a broom and dustpan (way too early to be running a vacuum cleaner on the porch), I got up the majority of it and called it a day. Finally got to bed about 9:00 this morning. Well, the sirens and all on Monday really pushed me around the clock faster--hehe! I guess that's a good thing. ;)
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On Tuesday afternoon I woke up and the McLap was dead as a doornail. Would not turn on for love or money. Another day of 114 degree heat index. Dew point was 83--highest in 25 years. So humid that if I got up and moved around I was sweating because the AC couldn't keep up. Needless to say, I am not good for much in the heat. Quiet days up here. :)
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Anyways, I have Leah's old Gateway laptop as a backup, right? I drug it down from the bedroom closet--but it didn't recognize my new internet service. So, I still had my new fancy-schmancy phone with internet--LOL! At least I could read emails and send a couple. ;)
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I tried the McLap off and on all day--nothing. So, before I went to bed Wednesday morning I asked my techie angels to please see if they could fix it while I slept. Yes, I actually do this. Out loud, no less. May sound crazy but...I woke up yesterday afternoon and the McLap started right up!! I was so happy I danced around the room saying "thank you! thank you! thank you! you're the best!!" And it has been working ever since. (Knock on wood.)
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Dagan and Leah were here shortly after I woke up, so no time to do much online. And--guess what? I completely forgot that this new TV system is actually a computer--duh! Here I was struggling with the tiny phone screen when I could have been using my huge TV screen and a keyboard--ROFL!! Dagan and Leah just shake their heads at me--LOL! Dagan took the backup Gateway with him because it needs another system installed for it to work now? I don't understand all that techie stuff, but I am so glad to have my techie angels--both my two human ones and whatever little spirits work on my stuff while I sleep. ;)
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I spent most of last night catching up little by little online with my blog friends. And watched a couple of newly released action movies! The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon and Unknown with Liam Neeson. They were both really good. If I had to pick, I think I liked Unknown better because of the particular mystery and twists, but they were both decent action movies. You never want to say too much when there are strange things to be revealed in both. ;)
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Well, that is what I have been up to this week. Today we are back to blue skies and white clouds. Glad to see it and hope it will dry up some of the wet ground. We're supposed to be back to rain again by Saturday. At least a person can breathe outside today and not feel like you're standing inside of a hot shower. Hope everyone is having a good week! :):)
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"Cherish all your happy moments: They make a fine cushion for old age."
Booth Tarkington