Opening Day

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Dove season opens at noon.

My brother surveys the field.

He has spent the last 20 hours out at the farm.

Roasting a pig.

This is probably the last hunt we will have here.

Berry Farms is booming.

It was a bittersweet day.

 Mental P. shows up in the nick of time.

Can anyone spot her sporty hunting vehicle?

There is some shooting.

There is some laughing.

 The pig is ready.

 It was a feeding frenzy.

It was the best pulled pork I have ever had in my life.

And I've had some pulled pork...

 I'm sorry, but how cute are these girls and their Muck Boots?

I need some Muck Boots.

And a truck.

 Somebody found this baby chicken snake.

It may have found its way into a car truck full of cute girls.

And these little boys were so proud.

There is about to be a mighty fine dove dinner here in Middle Tennessee.

Life is grand. 

Tuesday Text: Parentexting™

Now that we are out of college,

we have begun to contemplate our later years....

Don't you think I cheered him up?

Parenting: always a new frontier.

Mercury Monday

Today's Aquarius Horoscope from Cafe Astrology

Mercury, the planet of communication, enters your communications sector today! This cycle lasts until May 9th and is simply excellent for coming up with new ideas, making contact with others, easy and pleasant communications, and any learning endeavor. You are especially alert and bright and will thoroughly enjoy both taking in information and relaying it.

 Creativity: Good ~ Love: Fair ~ Business: Good

It's kinda funny.  I don't feel so alert and bright this Monday morning.  But I am going to go with this whole thing.  Big, new things are a-brewing in Mental Mama Land.  Stay tuned....

How's yours?

Disney Race Eve

Tomorrow portends to be an interesting morning....

Getting my 20-year-old son to the start line should be enough to earn me my finishers' medal.

I'm just sayin'....

Hump Day Quiz

I think a lot of this is water under the bridge. But I must take a moment on my soapbox to say that no child needs his or her parent to be their "buddy." Those kids are invariably the ones who end up in some sort of a pickle. Sooner rather than later. I am a human, and I am as flawed as the next guy. But my kids are awesome. Other parents even tell me so. They are awesome, and I like to think that their father and I may have had something to do with it. Just a little bit. Okay...as you were.

You Will Be a Cool Parent




You seem to naturally know a lot about parenting, and you know what kids need.

You can tell when it's time to let kids off the hook, and when it's time to lay down the law.

While your parenting is modern and hip, it's not over the top.

You know that there's nothing cool about a parent who acts like a teenager... or a drill sergeant!

Would You Be a Cool Parent?

The First Rule of Blogthings Is: You Don't Talk About Blogthings

And, yes, Baby Bird, I know my sentence structure is no good. Anybody want to weigh in here?

This-n-That Thursday

Things I miss:

• Coke ICEEs
• My Mama's peach ice cream
• SweeTarts
• "Here Come the Brides"
• That little pot of paste with the brush in the middle from first grade
• Paper dolls
• Charles Chips
• Swing the Statue
• All the night cricket noises
• My Mama
• Taking a bath and going back out to play until dark
• "The Big Valley"
• Lee Majors
• Bologna
• Fried bologna sammies
• The Sealtest milkman
• Jumping on the bed
• Unscrewing the top of the lightning bugs' jar under the covers
• Having no cares
• Playing with dolls and matchbox cars
• Waking up and starting it all over again.

Wonder what I can bring back....What do you miss?

Memorial

Reposted from 2008:

Please take a minute and 22 seconds to watch this clip. It contains some of my Uncle Bob's Memorial Service at Arlington National Cemetery in September 2006, and if you have never visited there, you should make an effort to go. Begun in Mrs. Robert E. Lee's rose garden during the Civil War, the 624 acre cemetery now contains the remains of soldiers and veterans from every American war. There is currently a five month wait to have a service at Arlington because of the wars in Iraq and Afganistan.

My Uncle Bob was a West Pointer. Class of 1945.

My Father Babe was a cadet, too. Class of 1946. He served in Korea and in Vietnam, and died in 1986. His doctors attributed his untimely death due to the amount of the herbicides and defoliants he was exposed to during his three tours of duty in Vietnam.

You may remember that I wrote about my mother's brother, Uncle Y in April. Please take a moment today to reflect on the courage and valor of all our armed forces. Past, present and future.

The entire time my father and Uncle Bob were students at West Point, their father, my grandfather, was a prisoner of war. By some twist of fate he was the highest ranking artillery officer during the Death March of Bataan in 1942, and remained a prisoner of the Japanese for the remainder of World War II. I have many of the letters and papers that belonged to my grandparents from this time, and among them is the following poem in my grandmother's hand, with the date May 21, 1942. He would have been in the POW camp at this point, and much communication was done via HAM radio; those who received messages, would send them on to the family members across the country. My grandmother Sugar had several messages from my grandfather sent to her this way. Many of them contained parts of this poem.

To Myrtle R. an Army Wife

Down East in USA

We have a message for you please - It came by Milky Way.

From prison camp in far Luzon the mystic message came,

Your husband is alive and well, and loves you just the same.

He held a post of high command with record brave and true.

He was faithful to his duty as he's ever been to you.

The soldier has no choice of time when country names the day.

The soldier has no choice of goals when duty points the way.

Such things are right and understood by army wives like you.

When soldiers drink the bitter cup, their wives must drink it too.

His isolation is complete by land and sea and air.

His only means of reaching you are thoughts and wish and prayer.

But Trans-Celestial ways are clear on starry nights in May.

The nights can turn some magic tricks that can't be done by day.

The crescent moon a wishing ship that sails a trackless blue,

Has brought the news of "Life and Hope" direct from him to you.

The charge is just a happy smile so dry your tears away,

And keep tuned in for later news the same time every day.

This message ends the usual way, your husband's words you hear.

"With Love and Kisses" for you all,

He ends it--Myrtle Dear.

I hope you'll join me in honoring all our military men and women everywhere today, and always.

Be Thou At Peace.

Sad Friday

I miss my friend Cupid.

He flew away four days ago.

I have been helping my family search all over.

Maybe today he will come home.

We put fresh food in his cage this morning.

I hope it works.

We are all so sad.

So. Sad.

This-n-That Thursday

Ruminating:

• Today would have been my mother's 81st birthday.
• Today is my former father-in-law's funeral.
• Today is also his son's birthday...
• All three of the above people loved and still love St. Patrick's Day.
• I shall celebrate life today.
• The birds were really happy this morning.
• Dora was especially frisky on our walk.
• My coffee is heavenly.
• I shall celebrate life today.

You?

Tuesday Text: Parentexting™

Spring Break and Augie went to an island. His Mama bought him 50 free texts, and the rest were on him...hence the radio silence:

And The Bird? Much more local. And much more chatty.
As you can see, Mama is still trying to eat more nutritious food. Life is excellent.

Tuesday Text: Parentexting™

The one where the boy goes skiing with his buddies

and forgets the bags of food his Mama packed for him:

He reassured me with a picture of all the food up there.

But, back here? I may never get rid of these:

gah

How's your week going so far?

Apologies to my Fellow New Englanders....

You can blame this snowmaggedon on all your Aquarian friends:

Aquarius - Dec. 27, 2010

This is an auspicious time for you, Aquarius. It gives you the energy and enthusiasm to make the necessary changes in your life. There is a lot of work to do, but you're up to it! First focus on your relationships. Your loved ones don't care about your professional successes. They want (and perhaps need) to spend more time with you. Do what you can to bring your life more into balance...

So, along with much of the Northeast, my office is closed today, and when Dora and I headed out for our walk this morning, this is what greeted us:

That right there is a colossal snowbank. I felt a little Laura Ingalls Wilderesque.... And my family is fixin' to spend so much time with me you may be reading about it. And I don't know about the balance part. Some stuff just may stay off kilter--because I like it like that.
Happy Monday! Is your scope as good as mine?

December 25, 2010

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew: "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round--apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that--as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow- passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

This-n-That Thursday

More drivel, but it's wise, humanity sorta stuff. I am allowed....

Hey, I'm older than the President:

• Love is not a feeling, it is a behavior.
• You don't really have to have 8 glasses of water every day.
• "Parent" is actually a verb.
• Don't "say," just "do."
• How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. ~ Wayne Dyer
• That clean underwear thing you've always heard? It's true.
• Love is when two people know everything about each other, and it's okay.
• True friends stab you in the front. ~ Oscar Wilde
• A dirty diaper always needs to be changed as soon as possible.
• Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. ~ George Washington
• The only way to have a friend is to be one. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln

And, yes, I know this is quote-heavy, but they are brilliant, right? And, wise? Don't worry...all my good friends are still there. I've just been thinking....

What do you have to add?

More Poop from Dora

My mother continues to act like a moronic college student on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay visit with her blisters at blogfest. So I thought I'd give you a little more poop from where I see things. Today, we will delve into a wee bit more of what makes me tick:

• First of all, we have the actual poop. I poop in the park. It's what I do. There are rules there. The poop has to be picked up by the accompanying human. Sometimes I like to put a poop in the very tall, tick-infested grass. My humans have a hard time finding it to pick it up in my nice purple poop bag. I am highly amused by this whole thing. Oh, and sorry for the poor quality of the poop-bags picture. It's the whole no-opposable-thumb thing I've got going. Oh, and when we get back home? All they talk about is whether or not I pooped. The whole thing is just so tiresome. Seriously. I wish they'd just go back to obsessing about the weather.

• WTF??? I do not even think so. They can just think again if I'm getting in that stupid van for a bath. Ain't no way in H-E-Double-Toothpicks. Uh unh.

When I found this picture on my mother's computer, I just about packed up my toys and headed for the door. But, who am I kidding? I am so in charge here it isn't even funny. Suckers.

• And here, we have me practicing my aloof-ness. The cat taught me. Good, right?

Happy Father's Day

To fathers here. And there.

LTC A.R. Ives

February 24, 1925 - January 5, 1986

Balls

Yesterday, we hosted 4 lovely young girls overnight.

They were part of a visiting youth choir of 60+ members

from Charlotte, North Carolina,

and the concert was absolutely glorious.

The Bird and Augie were away, so we put their rooms to good use.

I had them clean and organize things for our houseguests.

And after the concert, I brought the girls here.

It was late; I got them cookies and milk, and tucked them in.

This morning, they had to be up and back at church by 7.

Did I say the girls were lovely?

They were.

Very.

And so, after I returned home at 7: 15 from delivering these sweet girls?

I found this charming display on the back of Augie's door.

Yes. Basketball shorts. And boxers.

These fancy boxers...

So, um, yeah.

Happy Friday, y'all.

Dora

Six years ago,

Give or take a day or two,

A litter of beagle-mix puppies was born to a mama dog in West Virginia.

They were taken to the pound.

All fourteen puppies and their mama...

Were left there to be euthanized.

Then the good people angels at Pet Rescue came along.

And brought them to foster homes in New York.

A human mama and her babies, found these puppies.

They selected one named Maggie and went through the process to adopt her.

The human daddy didn't want another puppy.

The family bichon Boomer had only last year gone to The Rainbow Bridge.

"It's too soon." He said.

"It's a dishonor to Boomer." He said.

"Okay," said the human mama. "We'll just go view the puppy."

The human daddy went to play golf.

The human mama and her babies went to 'view' the puppies.

They were six weeks old and ready for their forever homes.

Maggie the puppy was just as cute in real life as she was in her photos online.

She was so sweet, cuddly and squishy.

But her sister Dora? The Explorer?

Decided that she was our puppy.

And that was that.

By the time the human daddy reached the human mama on the phone,

She was already at Petco buying supplies...

For the puppy her children could hold in the palms of their hands.

And when they got home?

And put the puppy on her new daddy's knee?

He was a goner.

And still is today.

Happy Birthday Dora!

You are loved more than you will ever know.

Happy Birthday Squazz!

One cool, incognito narc....

c 1987

You haven't changed a bit!

Well, not much.

xoxoxoxo

Dora-Vision™

Life in the complex.

A sneak peek at the neighbors.

My mommy cannot get enough plants between us and them...

Stay tuned....

I am watching everything around here.

Everything.

But I am just one dog....