Elegance

My friend Mrs. Staggs at A Happy Miscellany posted the well known quote from William Henry Channing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Channing) and it reminded me so much of Grandma and her three daughters, one of whom was Mom. I think they had this all down, and here I've let it slip away. I'm going to try to get it back a little. OK, some of it I haven't lost, but I'm going to work on the parts I've let slide. It's my heritage, and I would like to share it with my daughter.

Speaking of slides, our pianist last night at band practice said "Why don't the other kids like it when the trombone players are in the playground? Because they keep trying to move the slide and they can't swing." Groan.

Previously, he said, "How do you tell if the stage is level? When the drummer is drooling out of both sides of his mouth."

Snakes are Fast

It's Thursday again, and that means, time to recycle, which is what I was doing, hauling the red recycle bin out to the road, when I noticed a suspicious looking stick in the middle of the sidewalk. Instantly I thought a few things: That stick wasn't there before. Where'd that stick come from? Why is that stick so uniformly pointed on both ends? That stick is not a stick. By the time I'd finished thinking the stick was a snake, it started to wiggle, and I was amazed at many things: That snake is VERY FAST. That snake is very cautious. That snake is afraid of ME. I can't see the snake but I can hear where it's going. That snake sure makes a lot of noise. By the time I finished the noise thought, the snake had settled into silence--by the way, the noise was dry leaves--under the azalea, at least that's where it sounded like he/she had stopped.

After all that excitement, I remembered BoggyWoggy bragging about her ripe grapes, so I wandered off to the grape vines. I have two varieties, and no idea what they are, but they both taste wonderful. I found some glowing in the sunlight, and though most of the bunch was still sour grapes, the sun-kissed ones looked inviting so I ate them, well, three of them. I'm not supposed to eat grapes because of their high sugar content.

I'm not diabetic, but I would be if I went around eating all the grapes I wanted. It makes my brothers mad that they're diabetic and I'm not. They eat cake and I don't. Well, maybe they don't eat much cake anymore. I don't keep tabs. Brainy brothers, they are. One of them told me not to use ibuprofin because it's bad for me. Huh? That was all he'd say about that, but he was adamant. They are both fairly inflexible in their opinions. So, is ibuprofin so bad? My doctors keep recomending it.

I know, some of you want to see a picture of DD with her face all blown up like a balloon from having all 4 of her wisdom teeth removed, but she's not keen to share that particular look. At least her poison oak seems to have responded well to the medicine her doctor prescribed, and mabe she didn't share it with me via the laundry? Knock on so far so good wood. Is there something lurking? Well, that's enough of that.

What Day is It?

Remember the poison oak? Well, my poor daughter has been attacked by some. We don't know where she got it. I think it showed up Monday morning a week ago, or Sunday night while she was sleeping. Poor baby! My best guess is she got it while looking at her uncle, my brother's goats after his daugher's wedding the Saturday before. It was a beautiful wedding, and a good party afterwards. The blissful couple went for a Carribean Cruise for their honeymoon, but had to fly home early because of Hurricane Dean.

DD eliminated all the cats and kittens she'd been playing with, because she didn't start hanging out at the cat and kitten house until after the rash had shown up. First we thought it was just an allergic reaction to her medicine which she was taking for pneumonia, which is all cleared up now. But yesterday after her visit to the doctor, the verdict was Poison Oak! Poor darling girl. Now I'm afraid of her laundry, and every itch I get sends shivers of fear coursing through me. Yikes! I am not as brave as my DD.

MIL took up most of last few days because her potassium levels dropped so low (we know not why, but she's vowed to eat a whole banana every day from now on) that she hadn't the energy to stand up. It took several hours to convince her she needed to take an ambulance ride over to the hospital. As weak as she was, those ambulance guys got her to laugh. She has such a good attitude! She's back home now and feeling better than she has in a long time. Yaaaa.

Finally I got another chance to ride my new bike. HH went, too, and went slowly enough for me to keep up, sometimes even too slow. We are V lucky to have some very fun bike paths around here and we can circle around several ways without covering repeat ground. Isn't that lucky? And it's all lush and lovely, with blackberries, rose hips, playgrounds, a duck pond with ducks (one of them singularly ugly) plus it's fun to get out in the evening with HH. Fun fun fun.

Yesterday HH and I were driving back from dropping DD off at a lesson when we had to stop for a very handsome deer just standing in the road looking at us. Driving. That reminds me, I'd better get going. Ta ta for now.

Middle Name Thing

This is the truck that Hippy drove that went to the store that carried the bike that Vita bought. I rode the bike with the large basket full of empty cans to the store and put the cans in the machine and got a credit voucher when I pushed the button, while my bike was beside me in the indoor/outdoor bottle return room. Oregon has a bottle return law, and most stores have installed automated bottle return machines. Next, we, bike and I, went out front, but when I looked at the bike rack, I realized that if I locked my bike to that rack, no one would be able to get by it on the sidewalk. There were plants and pallets of water bottles blocking most of the sidewalk in front of the store. So I put my paper in my wallet, put my wallet back in my pocket, and peddled back over the bridge, down the road through the chicanes, and home. I was nervous riding with all the cars, but all went well, and I'm thinking of taking another run during the next traffic lull. I saw a very nice functional looking bike rack at the eye doctor's as I went by. I felt a little self-concious because I was smiling so broadly, I must have looked like a kook. I am sort of wishing I'd gotten the "Look out for me, I am a KOOK!" flag for the back of my bike, because traffic is a little scarey.

Middle Name Meme!

Here are the rules:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

The Middle Name Meme

S: Sun. That's the name on my new bike, and it goes with my sunny nature.

U: Unique. Just like everyone else, I am unique. No one is like me; no one is like you. We're all special.

E: Edgy. That's me. Always on the edge just barely hanging on. Nothing's nice and secure. Maybe that's why I'm so jumpy.

Tagging Three People:

Avus. He may have a very interesting middle name; a son of his does.

Mindy. Hey, Mindy. What's your middle name? You can start a blog and stuff.

Humbug. Hey! Where are you, Baugh Humbug?

Wednesday Wanderings

I was inspired by Avus to post this picture, as he has some from a lovely bike ride he took. Maybe the connection is only in my head. See the bike with the orange stripe poking out behind the building? That is what HH bought for DD. DD hasn't ridden it yet, but she's planning to. It's a 250 Ninja. HH took it on a 450 mile weekend along Columbia River and scenic coast range. This was somewhere along route. His knees were saying "We want to stretch out now!" by the time he got home.

I'm keeping a close eye on the poison oak. Some of it is completely dead now, but there's still green in a bit between the lavender and candytuft. I don't know if I'm brave enough to deadhead the lavender. That's usually fun because it smells wonderful. We're supposed to have temperatures in the mid 90's, so I'd better get out earlier than I usually do to water whatever's left alive out there.