Rain, rain go away......

Well, it's Sunday, December 13, 2009.  It's 43.9 degrees outside in old Calhoun County and the rain is pouring down.  The really strange thing about that is that the weather channel says that the humidity is only 86%.....now can someone explain that to me??  I mean I could understand if there wasn't water pouring out of the sky, if it was just "sticky", but it is actually raining, how can it be raining if the humidity is only 86%?

Anyway, it's almost Christmas.  Once upon a time that would have excited me, now it is just about the most depressing statement I've ever heard.  My kids are scattered around the country and none of them will be home for Christmas.  No kids home means no grandkids home either.  I think I've come to a decision......Christmas without kids is like swimming without water.....depressing and possibly dangerous.

Anyway, I redid the tree with red lights instead of the white ones.  I'm not sure that I like it, but I'm not going to redo it again.  I think next year it will be a white tree with dark green ornaments....but that's getting ahead of myself.  Here is what the final product turned out to be:

So anyway, I'm not sure that I like the tree, but it's up and hopefully there will be presents under it soon enough.....actually I'm waiting on things that have been ordered and not yet received.  Hope they get here soon or this tree is going to be pitiful!!

So, last night was the second Saturday of the month.  That means that last night was the sing at the Lion's club in Grantsville.  There weren't too many people there this month.  I guess between the weather, which has been cold and awful, and the Holidays, which are galloping down on us with the speed of a run-away stallion, people decided that they couldn't come out to hear some Bluegrass.  But, the ones that did make it seemed to have fun, and I got plenty of pictures.

Here are a select few:

It was a good evening!!

One more thing.....Happy Birthday Bob!!

Baby, it's still cold outside!!

So, it's really cold again tonight!!  It's 18 degrees and it feels like 20 below!!  I hate cold weather!!

Anyway, this will be a short little post...well, it's suppose to be!  I showed y'all my Christmas tree....well, it's being redone.  No, not because of the cat....although he did his best last night to make sure that it needed to be redone. 

You see, we went to Wally World today.  I needed to buy a pair of shoes, no, not boots, just tennie shoes, and we wanted to get all the stuff for cookies and candies, so off to Spencer we went.  Of course once I was there I had to look at the Christmas decorations.  I can't go into ANY store that has Christmas decorations and NOT look.  But anyway, I found some awesome red lights for my tree! 

If you saw the pictures from earlier, you know that my tree is white and that this year I decided to do it in red and gold.  Of course, I've never had a white tree before, so when I say "this year" I mean the first year.  When I saw the red lights I just knew that I had to have them for the white tree.  I also got a red angel to go on top, simply because I don't like that orange star.

So tomorrow I'm going to be redoing the tree with more red garland and red lights and red angels!!  I love doing Christmas trees!

Now I'm going to go make a cup of hot tea, drink it and find somewhere warm to lay down and sleep!

Night all!!

Baby it's cold outside!!

Good Morning!! It's 7:13 in the morning an it's is a wonderful, balmy 13.5 degrees in Old Calhoun County WV.  The humidity is 60% with wind gust up to 15 mph!!  Don't that sound grand??  It's so cold that the sun doesn't even want to shine!

When I went outside to take those sunrise pictures, I realized why our schools are on a 2 hour delay this morning.  That air feels as though it's going right through your clothing, even my coat wasn't enough to keep the cold air out.

It was really cold last night as well.  Even the pups didn't want to do much more than go out and tinkle.  They didn't run around, or stand there and bark in order to get every other dog in the neighborhood to bark.  They went out, did what they needed to do, and came right back in.  Can't say that I blame them, I didn't want to get off the couch where I was sitting wrapped up in a blanket and watching tv.

But get up I did.  I rearranged the living room and set up the Christmas tree.  It was  NOT fun.  LOL  My living room is small and my furniture is large and overstuffed.  But I got it done, even if I'm not happy about the results.

Art got me a new tree this year.  It's 5 ft tall and it's snow white.  I've never had a white tree before and I wasn't sure how I would feel about it.  But it ended up looking pretty good.  All of the decorations are red, except for some golden bells and golden apples.  The lights are plain white and the garland is red.  There is two different designs of gold beads on it as well.  Here are a few pictures of the tree lit and unlit.  Let me know what you think!

If you notice, the star on top of the tree does not match the rest of the decorations.  I'm going to look around and see if I can find something that is either red or gold to go on top of the tree.  To look of it you wouldn't know that this tree has been knocked over twice already, would you?  Once Pattywack decided that he could climb to the top of the tree to reach one specific bell that seemed to just be calling his name.  Needless to say, the tree and the cat both came crashing down with the cat going in one direction, the decorations going another way and the yet another.  It was fun!  LOL  The second time the tree came crashing down, it was the same fur demon that caused the destruction.  He wanted to see how he looked with garland wrapped around him.  Thankfully he didn't get it around his neck, although by the time I was finished putting the tree back to rights I was ready to wrap something around his neck.  Anyway, our tree is  up and mostly decorated, and the animals and I have survived....so far.

Now to address something that several of you have ask me.  If you read yesterday's post you know that I said I was woke up by something that sounded like an explosion.  Well, I was.  A few of you asked me what that sound was, and I'm want to let you know that I DON'T know.  I'm not sure if it was something in my dreams, or if that cat used c-4 to kill the mouse.  I just know that something woke me up and it seemed to be so very, very loud that I wondered if the neighbors had heard it.  Maybe I'll give Pattywack so eggnog laced with rum and see what he has to say about it!

Later y'all!!

Dark and gloomy

Good morning!!  It's 7:02 am and I'm drinking a hot cup of tea and looking out the window.  It's a dreary old morning this morning.  It's all of 30 degrees in Old  Calhoun County, with humidity of 63% and a wind chill of 22.  It's not near as cold as the tv said it would be, although it's suppose to be all of 11 degrees tonight.  Isn't winter just grand??

Now, I know that there are many of you out there that truly enjoy the cold weather.  There's nothing wrong with that.  I just don't happen to be one of you. I would rather be toasty warm sitting by a fire with a good book than to be outside building a snowman or scraping a windshield.  I guess it's the fact that I'm a Good Old Southern Girl that causes me to dislike the cold so much. (Although I'm not from that far down South, just far enough to be a Good Old Southern Girl.)  Or maybe I have "thin blood" or something.  

Whatever the reason, I have no use for being cold.  

So, I was sleeping soundly under a blanket and a comforter with my pups keeping my feet warm when I was startled awake by what sounded like an explosion.  Or maybe that was just because of the dream I was having in which I was Mel Gibson's sidekick...but that's for a different post. Anyway a noise startled me awake.  So I lay there for a moment, deeply immersed in the pleasure of being warm on such a chilly morning, trying to think of a reason NOT to get up and see what had caused the racket that chased Mel from the room.  

Sighing deeply, I put my little bare feet on the cold floor and promptly screamed.  You see it's like this, it was cold last night so I decided to sleep on the couch in the living room...you know the room with the heat in it.  The living room is also the room with the television in it and the room in which we spend a good deal of time, watching said television, or playing guitar and singing, or -just sitting and talking.  It is also one of the rooms which make up the Feline Five-hundred Footrace and the site of the UFFC (Ultimate Feline Fighting Championship).  I just happen to be announcer and referee for both events.

Now for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, let me give you a little background information.  I have two cats.  Not much information is it?  Well, if you've ever lived in a house with TWO or more cats you don't need more information.  If you haven't had the pleasure/pain of sharing your living space with more than one cat, all I can say is LUCKY YOU!!

Now for the "rest of the story".  Periodically the contestants of both events try to bribe the officials by leaving them anonymous gifts.  This morning I was the recipient of one such anonymous gift.  When I put my little bare foot on the floor it came into contact with a very cold, very wet, very dead and possibly regurgitated mouse.  Or should I say mouse PARTS?

Now, under normal circumstances I would be happy about the lessening of the local mouse population.  But normal circumstances don't usually involved being half asleep and bare footed, nor do they involve gross, wet, sticky "stuff" clinging to said bare foot!  Let me tell you, the disposal of said "stuff" involved much gagging and cursing.  It also involved a good deal of Feline Laughter.

Not one, but BOTH of the guilty parties were sitting on the love seat, staring intently at me while I hopped around like a one legged stork cursing and trying to get said "stuff" off of my foot while not spreading it around the room like cheap frosting on a fattening cake.

I swear I distinctly heard laughter.

By the time I had managed to dispose of my "gift" neither cat was to be found.  It was as though Moses had parted the Red Sea and the cats had crossed over to the Promise Land.  They were just no longer around.

If you have managed to stop laughing long enough to give thought to how I started my morning, perhaps you could manage to find a little, tiny drop of sympathy for me.  It was not a pleasant way to start my day.

So anyway, I'm awake, the cats are in hiding and the dogs are still snoring loudly under the covers, nice and warm.

One of these days I WILL have kitty slippers!!

Good morning

Good morning, or should I say good night as I haven't been to bed yet?  I can't sleep, but so what else is new?

It's 50 degrees right now in Grantsville, and it's pissing down the rain.  The good news is that it's suppose to get up to 50 today....wait, it already is, so what do we have to look forward to?  And it's suppose to rain......like it is right now.   Anyway, tomorrow the high temp is suppose to be 29 degrees....don't that sound like fun??

Now I'm going to do something that  I don't usually do, I'm asking for help from ANYONE that is reading this.  With winter galloping toward us, and it being the holiday season and all, I would like to invite anyone that is able to please help us get coats, mittens, winter garments, etc for the kids at Rosebud Reservation.  Here's a link to Changing Winds Inc, an organization that has been helping the kids on the Rez for a few years now.  I try and donate what I can, which at times hasn't been much.  This year is tough on most of us, but for these people it's even worse.  Go check them out and you'll see:  http://www.changingwinds.org

I know that I complain a lot.  But I go and read about what these folks are going through, and what they have gone through for years now, and I realize that I don't have too awful much to actually complain about.  I have running water, I have electric and gas, I have a roof over my head and I have warm clothes.  My children had all of those things growing up and my grandkids have all of those things and much more right now.  But there are children living in the heartland of America that have no winter clothes, or coats, children who don't know what it is like to turn on a faucet and get hot and cold running water, or any water for that matter.  

If everyone of us would just donate a coat or a pair of gloves, just think of what a difference that would make.  I believe a person should leave the world a better place than it was before them, this could be one way of doing that.

Instead of getting myself something for Christmas, which I do every year nothing big, but something that I want, instead of doing that I'm going to buy a coat, hat and a pair of gloves and send them to the Rosebud Reservation.  That's my present to myself.

Good night now!

Hello, hello.....working with PSP today!

Hello,

It's a gloomy day around here today.  It's only 38 degrees and we have a 90% chance of rain today.  It's so overcast and ecky that I don't feel like doing anything.  So I'm going to be playing around with some pictures today, using Paint Shop, and I'm going to do some stuff with Photo shop as well.  I really like playing with pictures that way!  I'll post the results, whatever they may be, as soon as I have something that is "post-worthy".

There are some things on my mind today, well, for the last few days.  I don't usually rant too much...haha...but today I think that I'm going to.  You see, I belong to a group of wonderful women who are interested in many of the same things.  We email and send swaps.  It's been good.  But the last week or so things have become tense.  I don't know if it's just personal differences or if perhaps the stress of the Season has descended upon us all, but it's not a good thing.  You see, now no one is emailing anything.  If you post something, you don't get an answer and some of the people are no longer in the group.  I'm not saying that anything is right or wrong, but it's heartbreaking that we have declined to such a place.  I suppose that part of the blame for this rests on me, because for about a month I wasn't posting hardly at all, although I was reading most of the things that came through the group.  It's difficult for me to type very much, so I have been saving most of my typing for this blog....although there was several weeks where I didn't post here either.

Anyway, it makes me sad that this wonder group of people now seem as though they don't want to be involved with each other.  And it makes me angry.  The group was started because of how a few of us was treated by another group that we belonged to, which I won't elaborate on, and one of us came up with the idea of having our own place to talk, joke, laugh, cry and share with each other.  Now it seems as though that place is gone.  Such a waste.

Well, enough bitching.  It doesn't change anything and it doesn't even make me feel better, so I'm going to go play with some pictures.

Later.

Being able to drape.....

So, I was doing my usual household things all the while thinking about how very much I would like to take a nap. (Yeah, I know, I'm a lazy thing, but in my defense, I have been sick for a week and have less strength than a newborn kitten.) I walked into the living room and there, draped over the back of the couch like a piece of black and white fabric, was my Jack Russell Cabela aka Bitty or Belle.

She was sound asleep and didn't even notice when I sat down on the couch to sip a cup of tea. It was quiet in the house, well quiet except for the sounds of Bitty snoring like a champ. Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, she was not only sawing logs, but she was using a chainsaw in order to get it done. She was so soundly asleep that she didn't even more when I burst out laughing.  DeeOhGee was also laying on the couch trying to take a nap.  Bitty's snoring was so loud it woke her up, in the bottom picture she's giving Bitty a look that would have frozen hot lava!!  LOL 

So, I decided to grab the camera and see if I could get a few "candid" shots of her. I say candid because usually when she sees the camera she prances around and poses like a 2 year old child that loves to be the center of attention!

Here are a few shots of Bitty sleeping the sleep of the innocent...or in her case not so innocent! LOL

Good Morning!!

Good Morning!!  It's almost 7 a.m. and it's really, really cold outside.  I've been up for over an hour, actually about an hour and a half, and the mercury hasn't moved one centimeter!!  It's a chilly 23.9 outside in Ole' Calhoun County West Virginia!  Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's a nice warm day on the hill.  The humidity is a booming 95% and it doesn't seem as though it's going to rain/snow today (although tomorrow there is a 70% chance of some form of precipitation).

So, it looks as though this is going to be a day to just sit around in the house.....well actually, a day to do all of the things that I'm still not caught up on, you know what I mean, dishes, windows, mopping, etc.  At some point I would like to do something a little creative....maybe make some snowman ornies or something, I don't know.

Speaking of making stuff, I've got tons and tons of cookies and candies that HAVE to be made real soon.  Most of them will be sent off to exotic places such as Warrrensburg MO, Lima OH, Waco GA, Columbus OH and Marietta OH.  There are various and sunder children looking forward to the cookies and candies that NaNa makes.  Hopefully they will not be disappointed this year!!

So, I took the pups outside to do their morning duties.....not that they were at all enthused by that, but they did what they had to do.  The sunrise is beautiful today.  That's one thing you can always count on in the winter months, if you can see the sunrise it's usually a glorious one!!  Here are a few sunrise pictures to start you day!!  

Blessings

I'm back home now

Well, we went to Arnoldsburg for "The Sounds of Christmas" show.  It wasn't too bad.  I really enjoyed being out and about after being a prisoner in my own home for a week!  lol

I got a few pictures, and they turned out pretty good.  It was good to see so many people out supporting our Musicians.  I'm sure each and every performer appreciated the response that they received from the audience.  People seemed to enjoy themselves tonight.  There was plenty of singing, talking and laughing.  

Here are a few pictures to keep you entertained until I post again!  

So, it's Sunday

Well, it's Sunday. For most people that means everything from Church to dinner with the family. For me it usually means visiting with people I love and doing almost nothing productive. But this week it means something totally different.

After a week of feeling like crap and not being fit to be around, I have to do all the things that have been left undone. I've had two bouts of the "feeling icky and wanting to die" blues, and I've really gotten behind on things, so today I'm going to try and get caught up. Don't know if I'll manage it, but I'm going to try.

Also, this evening is the annual Sounds of Christmas at the Arnoldsburg Community Building. There will be music, bluegrass, country, gospel and mountain (hopefully), food and socialization!! I'm looking forward to the socialization more than anything!! I've been cooped up with the fur-demons for a week now so I'm ready for real live people!!

I'm going to grab my camera and some extra batteries and Art and I are heading out to hear some music!! I'm excited!!

But first, there's floors that need sweeping, dishes that need washing and furniture that needs dusting. As well as litter boxes that need cleaning, trash that needs dumping and Teri that needs feeding!!

Busy, busy!!!

I'll be back later to tell ya all about it......and complain about all the things I didn't get done!!

Later!

Winter thoughts

I woke up Saturday morning and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Winter had finally closed her death cold hand upon us. How did I know that? Well, the answer is very simple.....SNOW. Yes kiddies, we had the first actual snowfall of the winter today (well, actually last night and this morning, but whatever). Here is a view of what I saw when the dogs and I went out into the world:

It was a wet, heavy snow and it bowed down the branches of the pines.  In the recesses of my mind I began thinking about the last time we had a wet, heavy snow and how it was followed by ice and days without electricity.  Just looking at the following pictures are enough to chill me to the bone:

The snow is melting now, and it's suppose to be around 41 degrees tomorrow, so there's not much of a chance of any more snow falling in the next day or two.  Today's thin blanket was just Mistress Winter exercising her hold over us.  It won't be long before she has us all in a Death grip, begging and pleading for the Maiden Spring to deliver us from Winter's holdings.

But until then we will have to sit with our toes in the fire wishing and hoping for deliverance from the dark cold that is Winter.

Blessings.

So, I'm still sick

Okay, so I'm still sick.  My throat feels like it's been sanded by 100 grain sandpaper and then lacquered with lemon oil!!  (In other words it's raw and hurts like crazy!!)  But enough of that!!  Just suffice to say that I'm miserable and as soon as I finish this post I'm going to nap!!

I apologize for not saying that I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I was too focused on being miserable to even think about it.  So I'll say it now, I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  Ours wasn't bad, although Art was ill so we stayed home instead of going to his Mom's.  It was nice though, I made a small ham, a roasted chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, baked beans, green beans, corn, asparagus with cheese, banana pudding and pumpkin mousse.  Not bad for a non-planned Thanksgiving meal, now is it?  Sometimes I amaze even myself!!  (Boy, I've been hitting the Nyquil way, way too hard, haven't I?)

Anyway, all in all it wasn't too bad of a Thanksgiving Day.  Too bad it has gone down hill from there.

So, I've been re-doing my blog, adding things, taking things away.  I never realized how messed up this thing has become.  It started out to be one thing and now it's sort of an online diary or something.  Oh well, hopefully folks will continue to read it......wish they'd leave comments though.....HINT, HINT!!

Well, I'm going to take a nap now.  I still feel like crap.

Blessings,

Yes, I'm sick!!

So, in case any of you missed it, I'm sick.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that I don't have the Pig Flu.

Now, how do I know this you ask.  It's simple, I went to the Doctor and they did the "influenza test".  What is the influenza test you ask.  Well it's something like this:

You sit in a chair and they first take  your vitals, pulse, blood pressure, oxygen level, things they check to make sure that you are still alive.  Once they are done with that, they shove a wad of cotton that is attached to a length of wood up your nostril and leave it there for a minute.  Now, while I was sitting there with a yardstick attached to a cotton ball shoved up my right nostril so far that my left hand was twitching, I noticed that 60 seconds does not equal 1 minute.  60 seconds of having the right side of your brain jabbed with a cotton covered yard stick equals an hour of normal time.  And having some one say "Just a few seconds more" just makes the time drag out that much longer.

Anyway, I sat through this indignity in order to find out if I had the flu.  I don't.  I don't have influenza A or B.  So I won't be oinking for a while yet.  

The question still remains as to what I DO have.  I'm running a fever, have aching muscles, a sore throat, no congestion, a headache and now, just to make things interesting, an earache as well.  The answer:  A Viral Infection.   And there is nothing that they can give me to make it better, or to at least cut the recovery time.  WTF?  Who's bright idea is this??  If you don't have the flu you can't be helped?  If I'm not mistaken there's not much that they are doing to help the flu either, so why can't they at least ACT as though they can give me something to make me feel like a human again?  Or maybe kiss it and make it better?

Anyway, I'm sick and that's why I haven't posted in a day or so.  At least this time I DO have an excuse.

Well, the wind is blowing like crazy and the rain is coming down in sheets, so it's going to be an interesting night, to say the very least.  As long as it doesn't begin to thunder, I'll be fine.  I hate storms, I really, really, REALLY hate storms.  So let's hope it doesn't storm.

Later y'all!!