How Many People Does It Take To Change A Bulb...

A fluorescent bulb, that is. The answer is two.... One man to get the package out, take out one bulb and LEAVE the remaining bulb leaning precariously next to the extra extension cords, then go complete the task. The woman is supposed to follow behind him and put the remaining bulb safely away with the other bulbs.

Back track to this morning. I got up and after a quick cup of coffee went out to help get the park ready for the weekend. Despite the fact that we have tried to find some help with the mowing and weed eating, we have yet to find someone who likes manual labor. So with all the things that need to be accomplished this week I grabbed the mower to get started on the sites. I was actually going along quite well, looking ahead and calculating in my mind how much I could get accomplished before love of my life needed to leave for work. I hit a small rock, well it wasn't so small because most of it was underground. The blade must have hit it just right, because it pulled it out of the little hole it had been residing in and flung it at me. It missed me, but it bent the blade. I tipped up the mower and it didn't look too bad. I started it back up and found that it not only mowed but would dig a little valley as well.

I abandoned thoughts of mowing today, realizing the blade will need to be fixed. I had asked someone to repair the picnic tables and move the huge tire rim to the bon fire site. This was not done so I started working on that project. With some help from a boy camping here we got the fire pit pretty much cleaned up and we moved a lot of rocks and dirt. My next project was going to be moving the firewood to a more accessible location....... but decided to wait until I could mow in that area. Gee, I wish I had moved that wood!

Saw hubby off to work and kept working on different projects, trimming bushes and raking up piles of cuttings and picking some apples.........only to get stung by either a bee or a wasp several times. What ever it was flew in the armhole of my shirt. I stuck a sign in the door and got into the shower. The phone rang while I was in the shower and I actually took a reservation standing with soap all over me.

I was out of anything that would help with the swelling and itching, so decided to leave the sign up instructing anyone neding a site to use the night registration and go to the local grocery and pick up some benadryl creme. I found some bargains and picked up the milk, eggs, and bread for the weekend. I got home a little after 7:30 and unloaded the car and returned the calls on the answering machine. I slathered my arm with the benadryl and put up the groceries with a pounding headache.

A late arrival showed up and I checked him in, all the while longing to lock up and succumb to the headache. Just as I was about to close up, he came back. He wants firewood....the firewood that I didn't move. The firewood that I will have to walk through some tall grass to get. In the dark. Lots of snakes have been spotted lately and I don't like snakes. I pull my car around and shine the lights on the wood as I carefully tip toe through the grass and get enough wood for the campers.

I drive to the site they are sitting in....in their car. They have rented a tent site and are new to camping and not sure whta they are doing. I send them to a flatter spot, all the while wondering why you wouldn't stop before dark if you needed to set up a tent. But, whatever, I just want desperately to unload the wood and come back to the store to get some aspirin. They wonder aloud how they will be able to use electricity since they have no extension cord. Of course I offer to loan them one and head back to get it...........

I grab the extension cord and the fluorescent bulb hits the floor sounding like a gunshot enhancing the ache in my head. There are tiny little shards of glass everywhere and I am torn between sweeping up the mess and getting the cord to the campers so I can tend to my headache. I take a step forward and feel a stab to the bottom of my foot where a piece of the bulb had flown inside the sandal on my foot. I gingerly pulled the shard of glass out of my foot and walked to the site and delivered the cord. I came back and swept up the mess and took some aspirin, then cleaned up my bloody shoe.

Think I will go to bed now................ Tomorrow will be better........won't it?

Dull Women Have Immaculate Houses....

I started journaling some (?) years ago. In a fit of cleaning I found one of my older ones and, of course, quit cleaning to sit down with a cup of coffee and read it. Any excuse for a coffee break, right?

This particular one must be at least 8 or 9 years old and one entry refers to my love of my dachshunds. In case you are a new reader, I have two.... Oscar (as in, the Oscar goes to.....) and Emmy (yes, you get it). Oscar was given to me by my daughter under protest on my part. I swore that I did not like yippy little dogs. I named every reason under the sun to not take this dog into my home. I took him like all good mothers do and promptly fell in love. He has the personality of a tyrant and daily claims his rank as the alpha in our household. He is solely my dog and will growl and snarl at anyone who dares to even touch him in bed at night....except me. When he was 6 months old we bought him a wife. The name on her papers is Sweet Emmy Lou. While Oscar's name in no way reveals his personality, hers fits her. She is 6 pounds of pure love.

Back to the journal. The entry that caught my eye was the one about bed sheets. I used to change my sheets every other day and mop my house every day. Correction, I didn't use the mop in the same sense that I do now. I would start with a nice hot bucket of soapy water. I would wash the floors, the use the mop to remove all the soapy water, the repeat the process with clear water until I liked the results. Every day. I did eventually have a little breakdown and altered my over cleaning ways.

I couldn't stand to sleep on a sheet that had wrinkles in it or (heaven forbid) sand. According to my journal I was happy to sleep with the dog hair and the little bits of sand that got into the bed with the little paws. Well, not happy, but content......not unhappy........maybe resigned. The whole entry was about how I had lowered my standards of cleanliness for the love of my dogs. I guess it is pretty much like having your child creep into your bed with wet pajamas..... you change the kid and then crawl back into the damp bed and go back to sleep. It is only a little pee and it is your kid's pee, so, no big deal.

Back to the present.... two days ago I pulled the sheets off my bed and washed them, dried them, and had every intention of redressing the bed. I got busy in the store, then with cooking a meal and I totally forgot about them. I was on the phone with a friend right before going to bed and love of my life took the dogs out (under protest on their part...he refuses to sing the night-night pee-pee song to them) and went to bed a few minutes before me.

He made the bed!!!!! he has only attempted this a very few times in our marriage because I have standards in bed making that he cannot seem to fulfill. I like the sheets taut, no wrinkles. So much so that I purchased bed sheet garters to assure that they stay taut. Well, when I entered the room I could see right away that he had the bottom sheet on wrong, with the sides on the ends (it is a little tricky with king sheets, they are almost square). I thanked him and crawled into bed with my husband and canine children and slept blissfully......... maybe blissful is an exaggeration.

I tell you all of this just to make a point of how much I have changed in the last ten years. Even five years ago I would have made him get out of bed and remade it, all the while instructing him on the correct way to make a bed. He apparently never listened to those instructions anyway. He was so cute, he even tried to put on the garter at the head of the bed on his side. These fit under each corner and have to be attached to the sheet at both ends of the thing to keep it in place......... he put only one on with the other end just hanging loose. I finally remade the bed this morning and we will be sleeping on clean sheets that are pulled extra taut with no evidence of our four-legged children.....for tonight, as that will all change the minute they get into the bed!

I was going to post a picture of the title, but the camera had no charge left on it. I have a cross-stitch creation with a messy sofa, full of clutter and the title of this post on it. Perhaps, if I were a bit more organized these things would fall into place. I do manage to clean the restrooms and help mow and pull weeds and make apple butter and put up peaches. Some things slide and that's okay.......... sort of.......

Paint Crew

Yesterday was the big day. The paint was ready and so was my crew. There are three little boys who hang together and they all wanted to help with the picnic table repair job. That was such a small little job. Needed only one little hand to fix. So I had to come up with more......... The inside of the fence around the dumpster is not at all lovely and kind of pieced together. So I gathered some old stained up tees, along with three brushes and the paint and sent my paint crew in.

They finished off the first bucket of paint that didn't have much left, then took a Gatorade break. I gave them a whole new gallon and they were back at it again.

Have you ever seen a more handsome trio of young men? They were having a great time..... all three dipping out of one bucket of paint. I showed them that they could pour some of the full can into the empty can and create two containers to work from. I have now been dubbed one smart lady.

As you can see this wasn't an easy area to paint, but they painted all of it before they quit for the evening. After they washed up I told them each to go choose a free ice cream treat. There were whoops of gratitude and all is well in the world of boys.

I didn't get a shot of the completed paint job....it was getting dark and I do have to check in rigs. I can assure you that they covered it all with paint. I was asked if they could have a lemonade stand. All three boys have sisters and I think the girls were feeling a little left out of the action. I suggested they wait until the holiday weekend when I have the church group with about 100 tenters here. Eyes lit up as they were busy painting and calculating the profits from such a crowd.

Should be an interesting holiday weekend. I will try to keep my camera at the ready.

My Day Off.......Way Too Sweet

Well, it was only a half day, but I take what I can get. I spent the morning getting ready for my big adventure. A long shower (no one was doing laundry to pull away the hot water....yay!) and I even put on make-up (no need to scare people when you go to......WalMart!). I dressed in some new clothes that I inherited from a friend. I sashayed out to my vehicle and found that I even had fuel. It would seem that all the planets were in synch and all was right for a get away.

Off I went and spent a wonderful hour or so in the consignment shop........ you never know what treasures might await you. Then I got a free shampoo with my haircut. They weren't busy and she massaged my scalp, I was in heaven! The cut is good, but they always tend to weigh my hair down with lots of product. On to WalMart for the necessities of life and a quick stop at McDonald's for a tea for the drive home.

That's where it all went downhill. This was the sweetest tea I have ever had! I am from Georgia where all good cooks pride themselves on the sweetness of the tea and this went way beyond that! I had a raging sugar high, then a crash and now I am recovering from the headache! Lesson learned. I will not do that again. I will stick with water.

Goodbye, My Friend

I woke up early today. I reached to the the curtain and pulled it aside. There is an empty spot in my heart today. Our friend has left to move away. We didn't know him long, a couple of years, but in that short time we came to treasure his friendship. He gave generously of his time and knowledge to help our business expand. More than that, though we spent many wonderful hours with him and our other friends sometimes sitting around this very fire pit...........

This is what I saw when I pulled back my curtain........ A lonely site.

I walked down to the site with a heavy heart. I picked dead heads off the flowers and thought of our friends....all the friends we have made here over the years. I was sad to see this empty spot that has housed other good friends, too. It was comforting to peek out my curtains at night and know that there was someone in that spot that I could call on if ever I needed help.

Looks mighty lonely, this site, as it waits to meet a new occupant. I wonder if the new rig will hold a future dear friend. There are three sites in this little corner of the park and always seem to hold people who are dear to us. There has been a little controversy of late about this particular site. Feelings have been hurt and friendships bruised. I hope that it is only a bruise. Bruises heal with time.

I am in a melancholy mood today as I think of all my friends, some here and some that have moved on. Sometimes it is hard to please everyone as you try to do what you feel is the right thing. This doesn't always make me popular with everyone and I find myself developing a thick skin. I don't know that I want a thick skin, though. I still want to have compassion and to do that you have to put yourself in the place of others. Lately I feel like I have been walking a tightrope and am likely to fall with each step.

I think I will just lay low today and watch the world around to see what will unfold.

Anonymous

Have you ever felt hate? I am sure from time to time you have met people who don't particularly like you, nor you them. That is not what I am referring to. When you don't care to be in the presence of someone you usually simply remove yourself and go on about your business. That is what I do. But, I am talking about a very palpable feeling of hatred.

We all say "Oh, I just hate her, she thinks she is better than me." Or, as I have been known to say to friends who have achieved a goal that I have not yet reached, "I hate you." Really meaning that I am a little jealous. These are common statements we all have made from time to time and those that we made them to realized the context.

Lately I have felt pure hate coming from the anonymous commenter on my blog. Given the onslaught of responders to the comments, I am not the only one who had that perception. The latest comment was vile. I had written posts about my recent visits with my grandchildren along with pictures. I felt compelled to take them down because I do not want them viewed by this commenter. I feel a threat to myself from some of the statements made by "anonymous". I find myself double checking the locks on my doors and staying close to the main building. I think that this person(s) means me harm. I feel it come through the words she/he has written. No matter that the text is poorly constructed with misspellings and grammatical errors........... I feel the threat.

It doesn't help that this person(s) is living in my park. From the context of the last comment I can assume that she/he plans to leave soon. I am hopeful that this is true. The last comment also indicated that they would no longer be reading my blog, although I doubt that is true. I seem to have struck a chord with whoever this is and they keep returning. I know that I can delete the comments and that I can block the commenter...... However, that will not stop them from reading my words. And.... it won't stop them from hating me.

Nobody wants to be disliked this intensely. I am not naive enough to think that everyone will like me and want to be my friend. I don't like everyone I meet and I tend to choose my friends with great care.

I have felt restrained in my writing of late. My thoughts aren't simply running onto the keyboard in a hurry to be read. I had a long chat with my son the other night and he helped me put it all into perspective. He reminded me that not everyone will agree with or even like what I have to say. He told me that not every column written or book written has everyone for a fan, no matter how popular the writer or the subject matter. I suppose I will have to take the good with the bad.

A very dear friend commiserated with me this very day and asked me a very important question. She wanted to know if this anonymous commenter was affecting my writing. I had to answer that it was. I found myself editing my thoughts and words before they hit the "paper".

Autumn

This is my favorite time of year. I know it is not officially autumn, but there is a promise of cold weather in the air...... just a nip. Harvest has come early this year. My peach tree has already yielded her bounty and the apples are falling off the trees. But look closely........ there is a forgotten peach. Looks like a delicious breakfast for me.

All the tomato plants I bought and planted carefully are long gone, having given me only a handful of fruit. This volunteer from fallen tomatoes of last year is full of green fruit...... A true dilemma for me. Shall I wait for them to ripen or do I plan a meal around some fried green tomatoes?

A good breeze is blowing and my flowers are swaying in the wind.

I love sunflowers. They look so happy. I didn't plant any this year..... they just showed up from the fallen seeds of years past.

I try to plant gourds every year. They vine all over and tend to hide their fruit until they are big. I am always surprised at their size when I find them. I wonder how I could have missed something so big. I have painted some and carved a few. These hanging in the tree dried naturally and created a haven for birds. I put birdseed in the bottom and will be making some suet to fill them with so the birds can feast at will without the powerful winds we get here blowing it all away.

I posted a picture earlier this year of my hollow log. You probably don't recognize it now. It is full of flowers and mint. I was given some mint to plant by one of my favorite campers. Next year it will no doubt take over the entire log. For right now I have been pinching a leaf or two to add to my tea. Smells wonderful.

Today is cool and breezy. Doesn't feel like August and is making me think about Christmas. With 7 grandchildren, it is never too early to start considering what I will be giving each one. Time to hit my sewing room and get it ready for a major assault!