I got up this morning amd made and drank my coffee cause I was going to YARDSALES! While I was in the shower, the phone rang and it was Bobby telling me it was raining. So, I finished my hair and got dressed and made a grocery list and went to the Old Dutch. Still don't have any books.

I spent the rest of the day just hanging around, doing dishes, making beds and folding laundry. Doug came over about 5:30 and we watched TV for a while and then I got ready to go to Dan River High School to see Leah as grumpy Lucy in "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown". I'm not saying this cause she's a grand kid, but she absolutely stole the show. She sounded better singing in her "Lucy" voice than the rest did singing in their normal voices. It was really a good show.

Now I'm ready to go to bed, but I'm waiting for my soup to finish so I can cool it down and put it in the fridge.Doug has been asking for weeks when I was gonna make some vegetable soup, so today I got the ingredients for it and it's just about ready. I hope it's not too hot tomorrow. Oh well, if it is I'll just turn on the air in the den and eat in there.

This morning I took a couple of bread ends out and crumbled them up and threw them off the deck. There were already birds there on the concrete in front of my "barn" eating mulberries that had fallen from the tree and my bread landing amongst them didn't faze them at all.

What was so peculiar, I thought, there were robins, crows, mocking birds, red breasted finches,lil sparrows and some smaller brown birds with strange markings on their heads. But, the peculiar part, there were male and female of each species of birds. Is that strange or what?

A little later I went out and was leaning on the railing facing my friend Chris's house and a movement below caught my attention. There was the biggest, fattest ground hog (I think) mincing down the top of the wall that separates our yards. It looked like it was doing a tight rope act, very carefully putting one foot in front of the other as it went down the wall. I ran inside to get my camera, but when I got back out it was gone. So I went outside to the yard and looked everywhere, but never found it. It was way too fat to go into the holes in the foundation like Rebecca's cat did once. So, I don't know where it disappeared to, but I intend to keep watch for it. Maybe I'll get one of the boy's BB guns and have some stew. Did Granny Clamppett make ground hog stew or was that possum stew? I saw a possum Sunday walking down Claiborne St. and they're just too ugly to think about eating! Yuck!!

I told yall about the ground hog and me looking for it and never finding it. Well, today Susan was on the deck and hollered for me, but I was in the basement putting clothes in the washer and couldn't go right up. When I got there she told me that the ground hog had walked down the wall again, then jumped off and ran real fast to a pile of brick and planks Chris has laying in front of one of his buildings. It went under there for a while and then came out and ran back up to the house and went in the hole in the foundation. But, that hole is so small!

Later I saw Chris out in the yard and told him he had a boarder in his house. I told him about the ground hog and he said his dog had been acting sorta strange the last couple of days.....sniffing and whining in certain parts of the house. I guess Moach (the dog) suspected there was an intruder in his house.

Today I didn't have Coby because he had an appointment in Charlottesville to have his feet checked to see if the orthopedic shoes had helped his pigeon toes. His mom called me about 5 or 5:30 to say that he didn't go because he got sick yesterday with a high temperature and cried all day. They took him to his baby doctor and the doctor said he had something that he got from a tick bite. It has a name that starts with arti, but I don't remember the rest of it. Anyway, she said he'd been a sick lil boy. I won't have him tomorrow either because his dad is off and will keep him at home. Then Wed. he has to go back to the doctor, so I won't have him all day then.

It was a long day without him. I slept a little later than usual, did laundry, dishes, checked on and watered flowers, went to Boscovs with Susan, ate supper and it's still not 8 o'clock.

Tommy and Rebecca are coming Friday and we're going to see Sharon on Sat. I hope the weather cools down a little before then so I won't have to run the air on the car the whole way. It sorta guzzles the gas when the air is on.

I went to a yardsale at a church Sat. and the lady invited me to come back on Sunday to a singing, so Margaret, Doug and I went last night(we didn't have church at Trinity) and it was fantastic. A large group...about 40 of all ages from 13 to 64 and they could sing. Then after, they invited us to the fellowship hall for refreshments and they were good too.Gotta go! Stay cool.

I read this in the AARP Bulletin. It was written by Turlya Raheem. It is so true!

Most of us 50+ers don't give a darn about how we'll look in a bathing suit. We're not getting anything nipped or tucked so we can wear the latest fashions. We didn't start any special diet on New Year's to prepare for the big beach body-fest this summer. And we're not having anything custom made for our huge breasted-small hipped(or vice versa) bodies.

We see bodies like ours all year long at our swimming or water aerobics classes. After class, we sit unashamed in the locker room, some of us completely naked, catching up on grandchildren, sharing recipes and discussing articles we've read, movies we've seen and the upcoming presidential election.

With so much to explore, we have no room for bathing suit dread. We've tried every whole piece, two piece, bikini and tankini on the market. We've finally found the skirted ones we really like, ordered two, and hope the catalog will carry it for years (otherwise, we might have to resort to tee shirts over shorts).

What I really know is that most of us are too happy about being healthy enough to swim-in our bathing suits or anything else we darn please-to worry about how we'll look doing it.

We missed seeing Sharon in May because the kids weren't here on an even Sat. We had decided to go today and Douglas went with us.

Our plan was to leave at 9:30AM and hope to be there by 12:30. Well, Douglas was late getting here and we ended up leaving at 9:55AM. I was gonna drive up and Douglas was gonna drive back because he had sunglasses and I don't and usually the sun is pretty bright and in our face when we leave Charlottesville about 3PM.

Once we left the city limits of Danville, the traffic wasn't too bad and we made good time. Tommy and Rebecca were in the back seat playing games (gameboy) and listening to music. We were traveling on down the road and all of a sudden there was a pick up truck in front of me with an animal hauler hooked to it. I didn't pay too much attention to it, but all of a sudden something flew out of it and hit the grill of my car. Then it happened again only a little more and only then did I realize that cow dung was flying out at an alarming rate and hitting my nice clean car. Needless to say, as soon as I could, I passed that sucker. Ugh!!

We got there at 12:30 and Doug had to fill out a form to get in cause it had been so long since he was there. Then we had to get patted down and then we finally got to get on the bus. Sharon was there when we got to the visitor's area and she was really surprised to see Doug cause when I talked to her last night I didn't tell her he was coming.

We had a nice long visit and the boys got Sharon a lot of treats she doesn't usually get to eat and they got their picture taken. You really see some weird looking people there visiting. We saw one lil black girl who came in carrying a tiny lil baby and the girl's shirt was up and her jeans were so low on her hips we could see a goodly amount of butt cheek. Don't know how she got past the guards.

When we left it was a little hazy, but by the time we got right outside of Charlottesville heading home it started to rain. Light at first, but then it got so heavy you could hardly see the road. It did that on and off until we got to Gretna and then it sort of cleared off with just an occasional drizzle.

We had a good trip and I got a form to fill out so that hopefully next time we go Chad can go with us. That will really tickle him and Tommy cause they hate to be apart when Tommy comes for a visit. They kind of stick together like glue and never argue or fuss. As Rebecca was telling her friend," They're best friends even tho they're cousins". Whew............
Saturday, June 21, 2008

Rebecca and Tommy came last Friday. Rachel came home from church with me on Sunday and Chad and Tommy stick together like glue when Tommy's here. So,that's four.

Sunday we didn't have an evening service so we went to K Mart and to Sears and got paint supplies and paint and Rachel and Rebecca with a lil help from Tommy and Chad painted Rebecca's room. They worked hard on it Sunday and Monday; did some touch up on Tuesday and before Rebecca left Wed. evening she had it pretty well straightened up. R and R took her bookcase, shelves, night stand and magazine rack out back and painted them black. All in all, it looks pretty good.

I dyed her curtains black and am going to paint her bed and dresser black this coming up week cause I don't have Coby that week. She painted some bulletin boards and picture frames black and all of it is coming togeter very well. Oh, I forgot to say.......her room is a dark red. We left all the trim white and it looks very nice. I hope to find her a red or black comforter or maybe one that incorporates both colors and maybe a small throw rug.

Once the room was finished they ate a lot, cooked a lot and messed up a lot of dishes. After having 4 kids here most of the time and 5 kids some of the time, it was really quiet last night after they were all gone. I actually took a nap yesterday evening cause I just couldn't hold my eyes open any longer. Guess I'm getting old! My Fantasy
Sunday, June 22, 2008

It's been a nice cool evening. I came home from church and finished dinner and we ate and I had a book I'd started yesterday, so I decided I'd go sit in the swing and read. So, I did. While I was sitting there someone came across the yard and spoke and after my initial shock, I looked up and discovered Dave Heard standing there grinning with a six pack in his hand. Nope, it wasn't for me, but for my neighbor Chris, who is having a birthday today. I was reading some of my old scribblings today after Cindy re-arranged my archives and I used to be a lot better than I am now. So, how do I change? I think I'm just getting too old to write. What would you do and where would you go if you could magically close your eyes and make a wish and have it come true? I've been thinking about this for a while and what I would really like is simple. Well, except for my trip to Ireland. That's where I'd go. I would like to be loved and taken care of and pampered by a nice man. I don't especially want the sex, but I would like to be hugged, cuddled, wined and dined, long walks on the beach or even the walking trail and lots of conversation. Oh, the sex would be okay, too. But I really miss having a male figure to lean on. Guess that's my fantasy. And it really is, isn't it? Assumptions
Thursday, June 26, 2008

It's funny how you can see someone or something and make an assumption about them/it and be entirely wrong. I was in Old Dutch this morning and a scruffy looking, bearded, skinny guy was in the produce aisle with me. He sorta smiled and spoke and I answered him back, but to me, he looked like what my concept of a homeless person would be. I got what I had gone for and when I got to the check out line he was ahead of me and had a bunch of groceries; looked like a week's supply for somebody with a family the size of Linda's. I don't know how much it was, but he pulled out a roll of bills that would choke a cow to pay for them. Funny, I assumed he'd buy a bottle or carton of beer and pay for it with change. Coming home down Claiborne I saw another old guy; this one walking with a cane. But what a cane it was! All decorated with stuffed toys, a Santa, and flowers. It was looking good! I don't know which house he went in; I've seen him several times, but he's always walking like he has a destination in mind. And his cane is always decorated with something pretty. Gives you a lift. You know, he might be the homeless guy!