Okay, so I've been spending a lot of time watching youtube vids. Feeling kinda trapped with Lola lately - can't do a lot of going, shopping whatever. So I've been surfing around watching whatever catches my interest.
Now this is the way to do a first dance at a wedding. You'll have to click on the link inside the video to watch it I think.
and this:
And to have had a dad with a sense of humor:
Not the best dancers in the world. You can't find fault with the sense of humor, love, caring and joy in living, though.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Drought
Here are a few quick posts, put under different headings to keep them separate.
It's nice to know that I'm not whacked in my memory of the way the weather used to be. Here is a fantastic map showing what the state of drought is in my area:
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
When Max first emailed me the link, we were in a severe drought. That was 4-5 days ago. Now we're in an extreme drought. I saved the image to preserve it, as the link will update and change through time.
It's so dry, I'm watering the garden on nearly a nightly basis. It's so friggin' hot I'm contemplating moving to Canada. As an alternative, the mountains are beginning to be appealing, and that's almost a miracle as I really, truly don't like mountains. However, a nice mountain in east Tennessee is becoming more and more appealing. Way up high and cool. Oh, that's right. I can't go anywhere in the winter. But, but, but, I can go out of the house in the summer. What a dilemma.
When Max first emailed me the link, we were in a severe drought. That was 4-5 days ago. Now we're in an extreme drought. I saved the image to preserve it, as the link will update and change through time.
It's so dry, I'm watering the garden on nearly a nightly basis. It's so friggin' hot I'm contemplating moving to Canada. As an alternative, the mountains are beginning to be appealing, and that's almost a miracle as I really, truly don't like mountains. However, a nice mountain in east Tennessee is becoming more and more appealing. Way up high and cool. Oh, that's right. I can't go anywhere in the winter. But, but, but, I can go out of the house in the summer. What a dilemma.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Elder Care Wonder
There's something I wonder about sometimes. The quick is: Is it mean or kindly to let the elderly do things, even difficult things for themselves.
Specifically, it's late right now, and I'm getting my mother to bed. It's our normal bedtime, if not a bit early for her. She's in the bathroom struggling to get out of wet clothes from incontinence and put on clean dry ones.
Of course, I can go in there, order her around, hold the pants, guide her feet into the holes, etc., to help and hurry her along. It would ease her body and certainly quicken things up.
The question is: If you start doing everything for someone, how much do you hasten their inability to do anything for themselves. My intuition is that you certainly hasten that inability. That's the tack I've been taking with caring for my mother. Yet there's a bit that nags at you; it makes you think that it's kinder to ease the ache by helping.
Specifically, it's late right now, and I'm getting my mother to bed. It's our normal bedtime, if not a bit early for her. She's in the bathroom struggling to get out of wet clothes from incontinence and put on clean dry ones.
Of course, I can go in there, order her around, hold the pants, guide her feet into the holes, etc., to help and hurry her along. It would ease her body and certainly quicken things up.
The question is: If you start doing everything for someone, how much do you hasten their inability to do anything for themselves. My intuition is that you certainly hasten that inability. That's the tack I've been taking with caring for my mother. Yet there's a bit that nags at you; it makes you think that it's kinder to ease the ache by helping.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
It Finally Rained
Huzzah! It finally rained here yesterday. We had a big, booming, windy thunderstorm in the afternoon. Following that we had about 30-45 minutes of a nice rain. We surely could have used some more, but at least what we had has the grass greening up a little, and I didn't have to water the garden last night.
Here's a picture of my nephew, JJ, along with his SO, Mariell, and their son Brandon. Looks like they're having a great time on vacation. I think I'm jealous.
Here's a picture of my nephew, JJ, along with his SO, Mariell, and their son Brandon. Looks like they're having a great time on vacation. I think I'm jealous.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Oak Tree Fires First Shot
Our reporter in the field managed to take a couple of photographs of the first shot. One photo isn't the best, with bright light obscuring a green bin placed for scale. However, one can see the bright sharp edges of the green bin, now blindingly white, that may hopefully give scale.
Stay tuned during the following years for updates on this ongoing battle.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Garden Update
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| Here are the beans as of June 1, 2012. |
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| Here are the peppers as of June 1, 2012 |
Well, folks, I'm beginning to wonder if it's ever going to rain for more than 5 minutes at a time in west Kentucky again. I've been so excited about my first garden in mumbledy years. It's living, but it's certainly not thriving. I'm having to water every night, and my water bill will be sky high. No savings there. Only, little seems to actually be growing. Except the pumpkin vine.
The beans are growing a little bit. Same with the tomatoes. None of them are growing very well, though. You'd think as hot as it's been and with me watering, they'd be taking off. Maybe it's just been too darned hot. I'm really over August in May.
 |
| Cattle panels for beans |
About those cattle panels. I'm of divided mind in my feelings about them. They'll last ages and don't require maintenance. But it took the two of us to put them up. I'd like to be able to plant and maintain the garden by myself. Not that I'll turn help down, especially with weeding. Still, I'd like to be able to plant a row of beans and trellis it without needing help. Stupid thing to worry about I suppose.
16 feet of panel is just too awkward for one old gal to handle. Mmmm, though I can drag them, and maybe if I'd placed them before I planted I could do it.
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| Peppers 06/10/12 |
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| Tomatoes 6/10/12 |
Today it's gray and overcast. The weather map doesn't show any activity within a hundred miles from here, though. Maybe this evening some rain will roll in.
Edited to add: The little white dots you see in the garden are moth balls. So far they've been totally successful, knock on wood, in keeping the rabbits away from the young and tender plants. Now that I've said that, the rabbits will invade en masse.
Also: Thank you, Uncle Charles, for the squash and
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Lola Update 06/09/2012
The other morning for breakfast, I sat Mom's plate down and asked her to tell me what was on it. She looked at it and said, "I can't." It was toast, fried egg, bacon and grits. Sigh.
Last week, though, my husband helped me a lot with my hardest issue - that Mom is perfectly comfortable sitting and laying in soiled clothes. He said perhaps she realizes something is wrong but simply doesn't know what to do about it. That different point of view helped me. I've had no problem with the fact that her body has quit working properly and she can't make it to the bathroom in time. That sitting around in it - well, I've had problems dealing with that.
She's also reached the point that whenever she has to change her clothes she has to be told how to do it. She can't be told over 2 things to do without becoming unable to do anything. If you tell her to take her pants off and take the underwear off, you have to wait for her to do it before telling her to put the new underwear on.
Last week, though, my husband helped me a lot with my hardest issue - that Mom is perfectly comfortable sitting and laying in soiled clothes. He said perhaps she realizes something is wrong but simply doesn't know what to do about it. That different point of view helped me. I've had no problem with the fact that her body has quit working properly and she can't make it to the bathroom in time. That sitting around in it - well, I've had problems dealing with that.
She's also reached the point that whenever she has to change her clothes she has to be told how to do it. She can't be told over 2 things to do without becoming unable to do anything. If you tell her to take her pants off and take the underwear off, you have to wait for her to do it before telling her to put the new underwear on.
Lindsey Stirling -Violin
I've got a new favorite violinist. This gal is absolutely fantastic.
Her name is Lindsey Stirling, and you can go to her youtube channel by clicking here: lindseystomp
I'm at Thorin's Wall in WoW. I swear. Okay. So really it's for Skyrim, which I got for Christmas and haven't played yet. This vid still makes me think I'm at Thorin's Wall. Regardless of the fact that this musician did the Skyrim music.
About 17 years ago, my father, then 73, mapped ALL of Zelda out, and built a wooden platform for his lap to hold the Zelda controller. He even made a clamp to snag over the controller at one particular point to hold the button down so he could rack up points while he went off and did other stuff. So how could I not include her Zelda Medley. But seriously, how can a WoW player watch this and not think Night Elf Hunter?
Okay, so I don't watch "America's Got Talent," and I just found out about her because she was linked on a news channel due to the influence of gaming on her music. And I love gaming. If you're not so into gaming, you may still like some of her other music. It's all good.
Her name is Lindsey Stirling, and you can go to her youtube channel by clicking here: lindseystomp
I'm at Thorin's Wall in WoW. I swear. Okay. So really it's for Skyrim, which I got for Christmas and haven't played yet. This vid still makes me think I'm at Thorin's Wall. Regardless of the fact that this musician did the Skyrim music.
About 17 years ago, my father, then 73, mapped ALL of Zelda out, and built a wooden platform for his lap to hold the Zelda controller. He even made a clamp to snag over the controller at one particular point to hold the button down so he could rack up points while he went off and did other stuff. So how could I not include her Zelda Medley. But seriously, how can a WoW player watch this and not think Night Elf Hunter?
Okay, so I don't watch "America's Got Talent," and I just found out about her because she was linked on a news channel due to the influence of gaming on her music. And I love gaming. If you're not so into gaming, you may still like some of her other music. It's all good.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Casual Update
Nothing important to relate tonight, just a casual update on anything that comes to mind.
It rained today. Finally! It's been almost a month since the last rain. Per the weather radio, parts south of Mayfield may have been hit with a severe thunderstorm. We had a lot of grumbling thunder and a few minutes of rain in the afternoon. Must have gotten worse as it headed west to Mayfield. Later this evening we've had a bit of "Mother" rain - a nurturing kind of rain.
Tonight when I put Mother to bed she told me with much emotion that she loved me. She did that last night. It brought home something about both of my parents that always bothered me once I matured enough to see it - they both did or now equate gratitude with love.
Neither of them ever really enjoyed me, especially after I became a person instead of a child they could easily boss around. They could never get the knack of enjoying talking to me. They never enjoyed teaching me politics, socializing, how to live with others, how to get along in the world just through chatting with me about my day, my activities, my friends. It's almost like they expected me to know everything without having anything taught to me.
When I was a teenager, they conveyed that everything I thought and every friend I had was stupid. Well, as teenagers go, they were right a lot of the time. I did some pretty stupid stuff. But still in all, your teenagers are people, and their thought processes need to be nurtured. All they ever did was slice and dice.
As I matured, exited teenage years and became a young adult, they still didn't enjoy me, and it seemed they went out of their way to make everyone that came into the house uncomfortable. Silent signals, silent stresses, silent condemnation. Nothing was ever fun. No one was valuable, cute in their naivete, funny, precocious, or promising as an individual.
When I finally got sick of all this and tried to leave home, their method of handling things was money - a shopping trip for school clothes, which was spent, I later felt, to keep me close to home and community college rather than spent on a fairly nearby college and dorm fees.
After a few years of stumbling around and my making a general mash-up of my life, instead of spending money on making sure I got back in college and finished my degree, their solution was to buy me a house in Arlington as a surprise. Like I really wanted to live where they could continue to watch and oversee every action I made.
I fled. After that, they treated me like a stranger. My father never called on the phone, ever, not once. They never wanted to talk to me just to talk to me. Every now and then Mother would accuse me of not having a telephone because she'd tried to call and couldn't get through. Sorry. I never ever had my phone cut off from not paying a bill, nor never ever didn't have a phone. Only my mother wrote a few letters. The only way they ever showed affection was in extravagant Christmas gifts.
Nowadays if my Mother is having a good day where she's somewhat aware of the care I'm giving her, she tells me she loves me. What she should say is that she's grateful I'm caring for her.
Or am I the idiot because I don't equate love with gratitude? Gratitude can increase love, but you can be grateful to a lot of people without loving them.
Ack, enough.
It rained today. Finally! It's been almost a month since the last rain. Per the weather radio, parts south of Mayfield may have been hit with a severe thunderstorm. We had a lot of grumbling thunder and a few minutes of rain in the afternoon. Must have gotten worse as it headed west to Mayfield. Later this evening we've had a bit of "Mother" rain - a nurturing kind of rain.
Tonight when I put Mother to bed she told me with much emotion that she loved me. She did that last night. It brought home something about both of my parents that always bothered me once I matured enough to see it - they both did or now equate gratitude with love.
Neither of them ever really enjoyed me, especially after I became a person instead of a child they could easily boss around. They could never get the knack of enjoying talking to me. They never enjoyed teaching me politics, socializing, how to live with others, how to get along in the world just through chatting with me about my day, my activities, my friends. It's almost like they expected me to know everything without having anything taught to me.
When I was a teenager, they conveyed that everything I thought and every friend I had was stupid. Well, as teenagers go, they were right a lot of the time. I did some pretty stupid stuff. But still in all, your teenagers are people, and their thought processes need to be nurtured. All they ever did was slice and dice.
As I matured, exited teenage years and became a young adult, they still didn't enjoy me, and it seemed they went out of their way to make everyone that came into the house uncomfortable. Silent signals, silent stresses, silent condemnation. Nothing was ever fun. No one was valuable, cute in their naivete, funny, precocious, or promising as an individual.
When I finally got sick of all this and tried to leave home, their method of handling things was money - a shopping trip for school clothes, which was spent, I later felt, to keep me close to home and community college rather than spent on a fairly nearby college and dorm fees.
After a few years of stumbling around and my making a general mash-up of my life, instead of spending money on making sure I got back in college and finished my degree, their solution was to buy me a house in Arlington as a surprise. Like I really wanted to live where they could continue to watch and oversee every action I made.
I fled. After that, they treated me like a stranger. My father never called on the phone, ever, not once. They never wanted to talk to me just to talk to me. Every now and then Mother would accuse me of not having a telephone because she'd tried to call and couldn't get through. Sorry. I never ever had my phone cut off from not paying a bill, nor never ever didn't have a phone. Only my mother wrote a few letters. The only way they ever showed affection was in extravagant Christmas gifts.
Nowadays if my Mother is having a good day where she's somewhat aware of the care I'm giving her, she tells me she loves me. What she should say is that she's grateful I'm caring for her.
Or am I the idiot because I don't equate love with gratitude? Gratitude can increase love, but you can be grateful to a lot of people without loving them.
Ack, enough.
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