oh yeah...?

WELL, YOU SHOULD SEE THE OTHER GUY!

1st off, i need to tell you that she's a-ok. ok?

outline of the morning -

5:38 a.m.
(ring, ring, ring...)
"hell-o"
"blah blah blah your mom had a fall this morning. she's on her way to baylor hospital."

5:58 a.m.
(i walk over to mom all tubed and wired up in a hospital bed and take her hand...)
"hey good lookin'. how you feelin'?
"i'm ok." (smile)
"what happened?"
"i don't know."

6:00-7:00
"how'd you get here?"
"where?"
"the hospital."
(she cocks her head...) "i don't know..."
"did you get to ride in an ambulance?"
"...an ambulance...i did...clear across town in an ambulance. it took a long time."
she never did remember she'd fallen, but i heard about "goin' clear across town" a dozen times. (it's a 5 minute ride.)

........................................

"i was lying here in this bed looking out at that hallway yesterday. i remember being here yesterday."
"no, mom, this just happened this morning."
"i'm sorry you have to spend your day babysitting your mom again today..."
(again??)"no, ma'am. this just happened an hour or two ago."

(repeat the above a dozen times...)

"...going clear across town in an ambulance...someone in the ambulance mentioned alzheimer's..."(pause.)
then she asked me,"if you were told you had alzheimer's would it make you feel any different about things?"

(my mom has never been an analytical person. or a thinker, yet this is a profound question. particularly the word *feel* in that sentence.)

i thought for a while and said, "i don't know."
i thought for a while longer and finally asked the obvious, "how does it make you feel?"
"i don't know," she said.

................................................

8:00-9:00
at some point the subject of leaving the hospital came up and she asked, "where would we go?"
"back to Vickery Towers."
"hmmmm...i'm trying to think what that means to me...back to vickery towers...?...i don't really know what i'm thinking, if that makes any sense.

.................................................

9:00 a.m.
getting restless. pulling on and messing with all those hoses and wires and sticky things attached to her chest and arms and finger...kept sitting up and tugging on things. trying to get free. wanted her nightgown sleeves back on her arms. tugging on tubes and wires and sticky things...pulling on her sleeves...

all the while, i'm asking her/telling her to please lay down, please be patient just a few more minutes, the tests are all run, we'll be leaving soon, lay back down, the nurse will remove those pesky things real soon...eventually she decided if she couldn't get her arms in the sleeves the best thing she could do was to just take it off.

i pretty much got the full monty.

some day i guess i'll be the one to wash her ass and lift her saggy boobs to wash under them, but...but......

"come on, mom let's get this nightgown back on you. the doctor will be back soon to remove those hoses and stuff. we'll be leaving real soon. i promise."

..........................................................

bottom line:

1 full monty.
1 ekg, 1 head/neck ct scan, 1 hip x-ray. all results normal.
1 laceration over the eye. *stitched* with super glue or something.
1 bad-ass shiner.
1 bad-ass lady.

...........................................................

as cousin nance, who gave us a ride home, said,
"all that adventure and home by 10:00 a.m."


and mary anne smiled.

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mr. chi-city &... the Blog O' The Day (edited)

i found that video over at the 122 blog. stop by and have a look. (it's not all mr. chi-city)

[EDIT: i changed the above link to 122 to a specific post because aaron keeps posting chi-city stuff and the last one was lame. the 122 blog is a group of 16 or so, 20-something year old college buddies, some of whom have now graduated/are in grad school elsewhere. they started the blog after experiencing a very serious personal and communal tragedy. one we all should hope never to experience ourselves. 

as a consequence of their loss, this group of hyper-intelligent, caring, crazy mofos has an even stronger bond than before. 

because of their love for each other and their hilarious fucking senses of humor...may 122 live forever. amen.]

while i'm at it, check out this cool adventure...random news story otd.

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found & find

what is it?

give up, yet?




well, actually, it's just a couple of random plastic objects found on my walk and placed on the stove. the green thing is a felt-tip marker cap. the orange thing is...an orange thing.

on the stove top they look like an irish flag to me.

and i like it.



so that's the found.

and the find?

i-must-find-new-digs within walking distance of mom's.

soon.

i'm not bluffing this time. for the first time in years i find myself surrounded by people more fucked up than i am. (this can't be a good thing.) i'm so sick and tired of these crazy landlord people. (if that sounds like whining to you, think again. because that's another thing i'm sick to death of. whiners.)


gratuitous picture of "the dog with 1/2 white nails and 1/2 black nails" in a rare restful moment....

a *random* news story.

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lost and found

and lost again. and found again...

a friend found him in the middle of a busy street a few blocks away back in november. i adopted him the day or 2 before christmas. he's had several names since then: tabu, killah, wishbone, benjamin franklin, metro...

after i'd had him (as metro) for a couple of weeks he disappeared for 3 days. and he's obviously still awol from at least 1 somebody else, so that's his name. AWOL.

awol's a master paper shredder (witness him laying in his handiwork above). he's housebroken (usually) and he's a sniffer extraordinaire. i'd say he's mostly beagle with the eyes and ears of a chihuahua. it's the beagle in him that makes him go awol. 

he swears he's not doing it on purpose. says he's just 'following his nose.' doing his job as best he can.

which reminds me. he's also a a dick licker. (eew, shame on you. his, not mine.) a friend says he does it "because he can."

i think she's right.


here he is xmas day with the lovely josephine and her entourage.




his hand prints in the freshly laid cement scratchcoat of my in-progress shower floor. yes, i said *hand* prints. he likes to walk on his hind legs, so i figure my dog, unlike yours, has 2 legs and 2 arms.


it may be hard to see, but that's his beagle nose print in the same cement.


he's never without that dorky harness since he came back and always on leash when we go out. but i've spiffed it up with black marks-a-lot tiger stripes, and his name and phone # with a note saying, "for a good time, call me at..."

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M.O.T.D.

Metaphor Of The Day: 

[edit - see picture above and link below for a metaphor (this post), via the following Brilliant simile.]

"Building a fire is like playing jenga backwards." (jtb)

ok, so i haven't felt like posting much lately. 

i have a feeling that may change in the near future. i may even post pictures of my new dog. he's a pretty cool dude...mom kinda likes him.

she's always been a pretty hard sell for change. of any kind. 

(puns intended. and she's never been too fond of pets before now.)

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the dog song

thanks, terri. it's awesome. and pretty much right on... Read more!

who is your hero? [edited 1-20-09]

the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

read the whole thing here.

what? you didn't read it. get back.

[edit: for a much more interesting and salient tribute, check this shit out from mr. bullet holes...] 

Read more!

i just learned that a blogger friend's mother died last night. i didn't know either one of them other than through this internet thing. but i can't stop crying.

the daughter is a true caregiver. she kept her mom in her home and cared for her until almost the very end; she washed her, fed her, was her companion and loving support.

the mom had alzheimer's.
i have mixed emotions. i feel for the daughter's indescribable loss and pain...i'm glad the mom is rid of hers.



when we 1st "met" i thought our moms sounded to be at pretty much the same stage of progression, but that wasn't so. my mom is still healthy - unbelievably so. she has lost more cognitive ability in the past month than in the past year, but she's still hanging in there and tries hard to catch a glimpse...she sleeps a whole lot more recently. i can see that weekly.

but she's still here. and for that i am grateful. i'm not ready for that. i guess i never will be?

peace to you and yours, Robyn.









my sister took us to walmart a few weeks ago and mom drove a go-cart for the first time ever. damn! she did good job maneuvering through the herds and strays of christmas shoppers.
and she didn't hit a single one. 

...or remember that she'd had such fun the next day. but she still likes hearing about it later.

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avocado salad and bachelor antipasta plate

are you tired of the same old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner night after night? would you like to have a nice bowl of cereal, but the milk is curdled? ...which brings me to the most difficult part of these recipes: gathering up the nerve to open the refrigerator.

(btw, where in the cornbread hell is the "d" in "refrigerator" and if that's the deal, lord, why does it unceremoniously show up in "fridge"? ??

that D should be more Tenacious.) 

did you listen to that? 

if not, do not even bother to read any further...

because this is just a tribute to the greatest refrigerator in the world!

AVOCADO SALAD for one:

the key here is to live where you can get a good avocado. (if you live in the hinterlands, substitute with toshiba apples or beef jerky.)

-slice your avocado in 2 and eat 1/2 of it with salt, pepper (and lime if you have it).
-place other 1/2 of avocado aside.
-open refrigerator and remove that mushy head of lettuce.
-remove mushy parts of lettuce.
-place unmushy parts on a plate.
-open fridge (again) and locate some old salad dressing. (the older the better. possibly the 'creamy cilantro' that wasn't as good as it sounded when you bought it, but it's better now, i promise.)
-pour a little* dressing on your lettuce** and mix with a fork.
open fridge again.
-find leftover parmesan cheese from your last pizza delivery and dump a little bit or a lot on.
-spoon out other 1/2 of avocado on top.
-add salt & lots of pepper.

and that's it. it's real good. if you happen to have carrots or onions in the refrigerator, don't add them to this particular salad. it's a total waste of time, but you can eat them while you cook.

and for you meat eaters, here's a great dish to go along with that one in case you didn't have enough unmushy lettuce for the salad to fill you up.

BACHELOR ANTIPASTA PLATE:

-open fridge (i know...i'm sorry!) and locate and remove any pizza less than 3 1/2 weeks old.
-while you're at it, locate and remove the container of sliced jalapenos that came with the pizza. and any old bologna that may be under the egg carton.
-(if there are eggs in the egg carton, extract them, too. because you can always add a fried or boiled egg to almost anything, especially salads and antipasta plates.)

-fry a slice or 2 of bologna. (or any available lunch meat or spare venison backstrap or sausage if you're real lucky.)
-scrape off the pizza toppings onto the fried bologna. (toss the crust. in the trash. it's too chewy when microwaved and it's most likely tasteless, anyway.)
-add jalapenos and nuke it all for a while. 

(tip: "a while" is sorta like "a dash" or "a pinch." i find 123 is a pretty universal microwave cooking time except for reheating cold coffee as it makes the cup too hot to hold.)

oh! & i almost forgot.

you're gonna have to open the fridge one more time to look for some more salad dressing. if you have any old italian dressing you're in luck big time. slosh some on top of your bachelor antipasta plate and you can call it, "deluxe.".

i have more great recipes to share. (but being the slacker that i am, i probably won't.)

or as the paraphrased french say... "enjoy, say la bone a pete."


* this is a tricky one. i can't really help you much, but suffice to say, too much dressing drenching is irreversible even if you have more stuff to add to the salad. if you get your lettuce too soggy, revert to the usual pb&j dinner.

** if you have some saltine crackers in little plastic packets that you got from a restaurant...crumble them up (before you open the packet) and pour them on the lettuce at this point of the preparation. (this "can" also work to "sort of" alleviate the above mentioned culinary snafu.)

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lost and found

found in the gutter on my midnight stroll.

left to right:

british coins*,
1- 1 pence
2- 2 pence
4- 5 pence
1- 10 pence
1- 20 pence

spanish euro coins,
1- 5 cent
1- 10 cent**

u.s. coins,
2- 1 cent

all are roughed up and scarred from being run over in the street. i wonder why and how long they might have been where i found them. i imagine some crazed spanish vagabond tossing them out the window of a fast moving vehicle and laughing maniacally. 

*- those english sure are proud of elizabethII. her profile is on all of them.

**- my favorite. it has a picture of the enigmatic cervantes on the obverse, national side.

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guess what i'm giving everyone for christmas...

The Day of Judgement

from the center panel of the

Memling Triptych in Gdańsk.

come judgement day, i'm pretty sure i'll be headed straight to hell for that one.  and for trying so dang hard to get out of christmas this year. only to be over ruled, i might add.

[phone call]

"are you serious? do you have a reason?"

"i've got half a dozen reasons."

"good."

before i even got to the 3rd one i was interrupted and the rest was never spoken.

as rodney daingerfield used to say, "i don't get no respect."

sometimes i hate being loved.

nothing personal, but...

bah fucking humbug.

------------------------------

this is unrelated, but it brought a much needed smile to my face. it's highly addictive, loads of fun...and very civilized, if you ask me.

and if you watch the 2nd video here you'll see my xmas offering at exactly the 2:57-2:58 mark.

(and if you watch the 1st video, tell me if you were as surprised as i was that there was no adolescent-boy-breast-poking involved.)

merry christmas, y'all

p.s.

Juste judex ultionis,
donum fac remissionis
ante diem rationis.

 

Read more!

cleaning out the closets

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

cleaning out the camera

this is a view out my bedroom window. later that same evening i went out for a stroll (without the camera) and saw jupiter and venus very near that same crescent moon. it was a very cool thing to witness.

for a view of some of the other things i found on my walks last week...

i live a couple of blocks from a hopping night-life district. the bills and jewelry were found in the early morning hours. the bracelet (anklet?) was broken into many pieces and lying in the street near the single ear ring. i wonder what happened? a drunken lover's quarrel, perhaps?

the bills i imagine falling out of pockets while inebriated fools fish for car keys.

i found this interesting little goodie on my way to mom's the other day. it's plastic and slightly padded. there are 4 metallic contact points on the front.

this is the back of the cowboy hat. that's like a tiny speaker in the center and 4 tiny electrical contacts(?) at bottom left.

any idea what it used to say? or sing?


yes, i know... it's an odd thing that i do, but i almost never come home empty handed. it's usually less interesting stuff than last week's bumper crop of a haul (at least to most people), and rarely as lucrative. ($6.07 woot!)

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i posted on lily's virtual book club about the book we've been reading. the book is called "a short history of tractors in ukrainian." it's quite enjoyable and a surprisingly poignant, yet unsentimental, family drama. 


so far there only 4 of us in the clubhouse. won't you join us? there's plenty of room.  

...it was really cold here last night and this morning. cold for here, anyway. and windy. i went out walking at midnight. ice crunched underfoot and i came home with frost on my nose. this morning i walked over to see mom. it's funny how she has no idea if it's cold or hot or windy or still outside. she noticed my hands were cold and seemed to enjoy holding them to her face.

it's starting to get cold again now. (it warmed up to almost 40 this afternoon.) i don't know how you eskimos do it. 20 degrees and 20 mph wind is butt freeze cold to me. and here it only lasts a day or 2 at a time. i hope.

(((y'all stay warm.)))

and come visit our book club. it won't be nearly so lame (no offense lily, josephine and clippy) with you there. (maybe)
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of lemons and monkeys and a random Q.O.T.D.

when life gives you lemons...laugh your ass off at it.

Question Of The Day: wtf is pink lemonade, anyway?

according to carnival historian Joe Nickell, in his 2005 book Secrets of the Sideshows, a man named Pete Conklin who ran a circus lemonade and peanut concession actually was the one who invented the drink. One day in 1857, while Conklin was making regular lemonade, he ran out of water. In desperation, he used the pink water from a tub that one of the bareback riders had used to wash her red tights. Unfazed, Conklin added some lemon slices and sold the concoction as “strawberry lemonade,” promptly doubling his sales. And, as they say, when life gives you lemons …

isn't that fascinating?

although pink lemons do exist, today's pink lemonade isn't made from their juice. (hopefully, it's made of some artificial dye not derived from an athlete's tights. right?)

remind me to never drink pink lemonade again...

but trust me on this one... bicycle riding monkeys are REAL.

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2 things

when the kids were little we had this routine at supper time. each of us would tell a good thing and a bad thing that had happened that day. one evening, in her sweet, squeaky, little 4-year-old voice, josephine just said, "grammawgrampaw." the rest of us laughed and laughed. did she not understand the concept? or had nothing bad occurred? whatever the case, from then on our little ritual was no longer "good thing/bad thing," but simply, "2 things."

having read this blog post from josephine yesterday morning, let me just say, "josephinesean."

as a parent it is very gratifying to know they have such a close relationship. have each others back, so to speak. may you all be so lucky.  may you always be such good friends with your siblings...

ok. enough sap for today. check out this article about a recent breakthrough in alzheimer's research involving β-breakers. that's "beta-breakers" - not to be confused with the annual "bay-to-breakers" 12-k run in san francisco.

Few things to keep in mind when doing this historical and very San Francisco race:

-You can drink and party on the route during the race. Be prepared to see bars and kegs on wheels.
-There will be many runners and walkers in costumes. Elvis will be seen numerous times through out the day.
-Bring tortillas for the start of the race. You don’t want to be unprepared for the traditional “Tortilla Fight” starting line.
-This is the only day you can be nude in public and not get arrested...(nude costume)

you can read more about the silly race here.

(pictured above: vegan cornbread and avocado salsa.) Read more!

go star wars!

mom and i spent 2 relaxing days and nights at my sister's in stephenville. the food was great, the company even better. mom was disoriented most of the time. especially toward the end.

she enjoyed being with her grandson even though she didn't know his name. that's him flashing the *hook 'em horns* sign. we were playing go fish with his star wars cards. yes, we're a real intellectual group. (doesn't that look like a norman rockwell painting?)

more pics after the jump...

she interacted well while sitting at the table playing cards.



this is a 52 second slide show of the affair...




give me all your neimoidian acclamator-class hokey pokey okey dokey solar sailers...

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Louise and I had been hitchhiking for several months. I think we were returning from New Hampshire and points between when we arrived in Denton, Texas in the spring of '70. Denton is a college town just north of Dallas. We had several friends going to school there. We spent a few days sitting in on classes and sleeping on couches. Suddenly it was spring break and time to move on.

One of our new friends invited us to go with himself and a couple of others to Port Aransas for splash day. How could we refuse? This was a 19 year old kid's dream. A Texas beach full of crazy, partying, Boones Farm Apple Wine drinking college boys. And girls!

As if that weren't incentive enough, our host was a rich kid. No, a very rich kid. I kid you not...we flew to Port Aransas in his private airplane. Our opening act was to buzz the beach from about 60 feet overhead.

If you've ever been to spring break you have some idea of what goes on. There are literally 10,000 college kids, very little sleep happens, much less sobriety and 3 days later, everyone disappears. Everyone goes back to school. Back to their responsibilities. 

Only, Louise and I had no classes to return to and our responsibility at the time was to explore. So we waved goodbye and we stayed.

With only a few dollars in my pocket, I decided to find a job. Told there was usually work on shrimp boats over at Aransas Pass, just a few miles up shore,  off we went. We went from boat to boat to boat with no luck. With only one boat in the harbor we hadn't yet asked, things were looking pretty grim. The captain was a not so friendly 30-something Yugoslavian. He was setting out at 3am the next morning and could use a "header", but I couldn't bring my dog.

did I mention Louise was my dog?

Louise was a stubby, little, curly-haired mutt named after my favorite sculptor at the time, Louise Nevelson. Louise Nevelson was famous for her black, found-object constructions. My Louise was solid black. My Louise stayed with the captain's wife and kids in town while we went out 500 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. 

I can't say what Louise did for those 30 days, but I had an adventure on a 50 foot shrimp boat with 2 crazy men, one of whom enjoyed threatening to throw me overboard daily. I started out seasick and ended up climbing on outriggers to disentangle nets in violent storms. I ate fresh snapper and moray eel and worked 20 hours a day and saw the sun rise and set on the ocean's horizon. I once saw the full moon rise as the sun set with nothing but ocean and sky and our small craft to interupt the magnificence.  When I returned, Louise and I had bucks in our pockets and we hitched to Colorado where we ended up living on a mountainside for 3 months and working in a zinc mine.

well, *i* worked in the mine. Louise stayed at home protecting the tent.

(the photo is of Louise Nevelson, not Louise the dog.)

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11-22-63

many people my age and older remember this day as the anniversary of the day jfk was shot. on november 22, 1963 i was a 12 year old kid living in dallas.

but what i remember the day for, just as much, is as the day before the 1st anniversary of the day i watched my dog get run over on november 23, 1962.

that's not her, but it's as close as i could come up with from lookalike internet pictures of my cocker spaniel mutt. (i can't tell you her name because it's my secret code. i always use it as the answer to: *your 1st pet's name.*)

what i will tell you is that as an 11 year old i rode my bicycle a lot and all over the place and that she went with me most of the time.

one day we were headed up to the shopping center a few miles from home. it was the day the dallas public library bookmobile would be there. we were less than a block away and, as it turned out, so was the bookmobile.

******* saw it and got excited.

she ran after it happy, barking. me, pedaling as fast as i could behind when...all of a sudden ******* was sucked up under the vehicle and left lifeless, almost at my feet. she had a clean slit in her side. her heart was...in the middle of lanshire street just a few feet away from me. i really don't remember how we got home.

no disrespect meant to the kennedy family, but that's what i remember this time of year.



i was also going to tell you about louise, my 2nd dog, who hitchhiked all over the country with me in the early '70s, but i think i'll save that story for later.
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]] scratchy throat [[

nothing much to say. i think i'm coming down with a cold.

so, here. read this blog today...

and yes, that good looking guy is my son.

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what's your favorite groucho quote?

a blogger friend is starting a virtual book club.

"I'd love to be a member of a book club, it would kick start my old love of reading (which has to be good thing, right?) and it would be fun and fascinating to share opinions with others.
The trouble is, I just don't have space in my life to fit in book club get-togethers. So I had this idea...I will create a blog where my very own book club bloggers can meet and choose books to read and discuss. What do you think? Good idea, daft idea?
Would anyone like to join me? Any thoughts on the first book?"

hey, it sounds like a goofy enough of an idea to me. i like to read. i'm pretty opinionated. i don't have real friends...so why the heck not?

i looked at a bunch of books from this website and suggested 3:

the life of pi - because it's about the only one i've heard about before.
a short history of tractors in ukrainian - because the title made me laugh.
and rites of passage - because the author, william golding, is one of my favorites.

lily's got synopses of all 3 on her site. check it out.

oh, and my favorite groucho quote?
"outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." Read more!

♫ happy birthday to you ♪♫♪

(updated post script after the jump)

and mom says so, too...

(sorry we didn't get around to making you a card, lynn anne.)

p.s.
at mom's today we called l.a. to wish her a happy birthday, but got the answering machine. mom talked for a while and either forgot she was talking to a machine or l.a. had picked up during the call. anyway, mom said, "i'll let you talk to rick" and handed me the phone.

i took it and said, "hello. hello?...hellooo?..."

hahahahahaha. doh! i sure hope the machine was still running to catch our buffoonery. Read more!

S.O.T.D.

i should have taken a picture of my dinner. you would be sooo jealous. provided you're not vegetarian or vegan.

fried bologna and tomato(yes, also fried) with lettuce and avocado on sourdough bread.

for some reason avocados are 3 for a dollar right now and i have been in sandwich heaven. avocado and eggs, chicken salad and avocado, tomato and avocado, avocado and avocado, peanut butter and avocado...

ok. so i didn't really have a PB&A. but i just might.

what's your favorite sandwich? Read more!

No Mo NaBloPoMo

and, oh, what a relief it is.

i'm pretty stubborn. i would've slogged through the month one way or the other. shoot, i even had/have an entry about *the top 10 reasons i'm a bigger dork than you are* pretty much typed out when my internet connection went awol last night. but this isn't it...

NaBloPoMo can kiss my pasty white ass.

...speaking of mistletoe, i saw this huge sprig on a walk early this morning and just had to shimmy up and snap it off. when i was a kid i probably would have broken it up into smaller pieces and made somewhere between 15 and 20 cents. (mistletoe was a major source of income for me back then. do kids still do that? well...they should.)

instead, i brought it home and hung it up in my doorway. that's probably not the wisest thing i've ever done, considering the only people who ever come up here are harold and rupert. and they're downright UGly.


anyway, one of these days i'l finish up the top 10 dorkiest post. and there are still a dozen or so map mosaic posts in the queue. here's a teaser for one of those.



i'll be back now and again. i wouldn't want to let my 1/2 dozen faithful readers down. Read more!

adventure at the arboretum

yesterday i was one of 16 lucky individuals to go on a field trip to the dallas arboretum. we were 11 memory care residents and 5 chaperons.

our 5 hour adventure included 1 1/2 hours of walking, riding and sitting as we enjoyed the splendor of a 66 acre park filled with perennial and annual blooms, old growth and newly cultivated trees, sculpture, construction, and most importantly, human interaction.

i can't remember the lady's name on the left, but that's henry in the middle and mom on the right.
(click on the pic, lynn anne, to see yo momma's natural smile.)

although henry's daughter and i went to be with our parents, we ended spending more time chasing the more active old geezers around.



- the weather was a perfect 72 degrees.
- we only had one scare; when ms. billie fell on the pavement.
- the 2 hour adventure actually took 6 hours from start to finish.
- mom said she was surprised at how beautiful it was.
- i saw a sign advertising chicken salad sandwiches!! (and some stonework i'd forgotten doing 15 years ago.)
- joyce thought everyone there was with our group.
- everyone there wished they were part of our group.
- i am more in awe than ever of full time caregivers.

and i hope this slide show works...

[edit: i see it works, but the 1st half of it is the same as the 2nd half without the captions... doh!]




peace, y'all. Read more!

CAOTD

1st of all, lily , it's just funny because it's funny. (see comments for last post) 

Crazy Article Of The Day from the science world...

do i have to point out the humor in the use of "AI" for artificial insemination in that article? AI is more commonly used as an acronym for artificial INTELLIGENCE. now, am i just sick or is that ironic? (and funny, lily.)

and what about this: "Semen samples can be collected and preserved from both wild and captive (rhinoceros) populations..."

yikes! (((shudder))) that's not a job i would want.
and what would your title be? master rhinobator?

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what is wrong with this picture?

"The only countries that seem to have enough sperm are those that pay - like the U.S. and Spain - or the countries that retain anonymity..."



hahahahah. taken out of context that's downright hilarious. taken in context...it's still pretty damn funny if you ask me.


call me crass, but i think this is a Much bigger pollination problem.

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veterans day, 2008

the new g.i bill passed last may by a vote of 75-22-3, and you more than deserve it. 
 

1.) i am ashamed that john cornyn continues to represents me in congress. 

2.) i am proud of all you vets.

peace.

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you wanta know what i think the single biggest roadblock to blogging is?


depression.

*maybe* i'll update later.

update, 9:38 pm :
so, "just shake it."
right? isn't that what you were thinking?

(i owe my friend terri big time for this one. as you may or may not know, there's no audio on my pc, but this video is hilarious even without sound...)
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suck it trebek

i suppose this counts as a post, but i don't really like this NaBloPoMo crap. the title of the last post, "physical features," was intended for the next installment of the mosaic map series i'm working on. but it wasn't finished. it still isn't and i refuse to rush it. besides, i have a life. of sorts...

today i was a carpenter.

and today i was a son, and a puzzle doer, and a maid and a cook for myself, and a peace keeper for stupid fucking neighbors.

tomorrow, if i'm lucky, i'll be a "writer" again. and if not...

suck it nablopomo Read more!

physical features

i went to the junkyard today. took a bunch of pictures. there were little shoes and pictures of people and baby bottles in some of the cars. it was weird. i didn't take pictures of those things. that's all for now.

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do, a deer ♫ ♫♫

it's been months since i went with mom to her friday happy hour. i used to take her every week, but now the staff takes just about all of the memory unit residents. i'm glad i went today. they had chicken salad sandwich quarters for snacks!

besides, i thought the entertainer was interesting.

as we were leaving, mom typically started to turn the wrong way and i tried to steer her back on course. she said, "but i want to thank him for coming." that's very unlike her. i guess she thought he was "interesting", too.

turns out he was called at the last minute when the scheduled performer called in sick, and i mean that literally. he got the call 30 minutes before show time. he told us he also teaches painting at VT on saturdays and preaches on sundays at various places and is the best husband in the world because he always says "yes dear." did i mention he's kinda sorta funny?

as we walked out mom turned to me and said, "not a very good singer was he?"

ahahahahahhahahaha

true. but he was enthusiastic. and mom smiled and clapped and thoroughly enjoyed herself. he mostly sang what i call show tunes to canned music. cabaret, new york new york, exodus, south pacific, several from the sound of music that mom obviously recognized, it's a grand old flag, ain't she sweet...mom did her spontaneous hand-tapping-boogie to that one.

 

he sang stuff that ripped right through the dementia and said, "well, hello there. i know you."

my favorites were a couple of al jolson tunes he sang a capella. i think they were mom's favorites, too. i could see her grin from behind.

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"EXPLANATION"

I like maps. I especially like old maps. The Peters Colony map I was charged with rendering in tile didn't have a "legend", but the mosaic begged me to include one anyway.

So, part of the research for the project involved studying the legends of 19th century maps for style and content. (The nerd in me got off on that.)
What type of lettering and decoration did they use? What did the compass rose look like? Who and what was mentioned? And what's this??? They didn't even call it a legend. No, more often it was an "Explanation."


What follows are a bunch of not so great pictures of the "explanation" engraved into the tile of the mosaic map.

I think I solved the problem I was having in Blogger of not always enabling browsers to click on pictures to enlarge them. (It has to do with losing html code if you drag them around during editing.) So, if you want to see more detail, click on a pic and hopefully it will enlarge.









Hey, i already admitted the photos suck. Basically, what they show are a bunch of hand drawn, hand engraved blah, blah, blahs to help the viewer understand the mosaic.



There is some fancy scroll work those old map makers were so fond of...





The scale.
(Meh, if you've been reading, you've already seen it.)


There's a compass rose not found in the research, but inspired by components of several of the old ones...


And of course, necessary information is included in the "explanation."


And...


Hey, wait a sec! How'd that election results map get in here? Read more!