The 2nd of July

No rain today but it's on the way. Mom worked on the yard without nearly enough assistance from my young professional x-boxer (which is different from being an ex-professional boxer) because it's going to be too wet the rest of the week and she's heading back to Riverdale on Saturday and will be gone for two weeks leaving the yard maintenance up to our less than enthusiastic gardener.

I went to the grocery store to stock up on necessities. We were poor hostesses when Aunt Ginger and Uncle Carl were here. I'm generally the one who does the cooking but only if I'm feeling up to par and that day, I was sub-par. Also. We just didn't plan well. Aunt Linda is coming tomorrow so I actually shopped and planned a bit. It's not exactly turning the mountain house into a Bed & Breakfast but there are things to eat with minimal effort. Stir fry chicken and veggies for dinner tomorrow night. I think our offers of hospitality need to come with the disclaimer that you want to schedule your visit for a time when Pop is here. Then you will be fed. Otherwise... you will have things like this...

 for dinner. Cantaloupe. Sweet, juicy, delicious cantaloupe. Trouble licked the juice afterwards. For lunch I had butter pecan ice cream with caramel sundae sauce. Just keeping it real. For breakfast we had lovely yogurt/fruit/granola parfaits drizzled with local honey. I have an odd, very sugar-full diet lately. I lean toward simple, clean, one ingredient type foods (the yogurt was fat free and greek) but I only want sweet stuff. I have also been snacking on bagel crisps since retiring to the Whine Cellar.


The most exciting thing that happened today was this....

 massive mushroom that is growing in our front yard. It's truly amazing. I took photos from the porch, down below (our front yard is a steep slope) and I went up to the top floor of the house and took pictures looking out the window like this...

 I'm just so fascinated by the fact that it's SOOOO large that it can be viewed from such a large distance.I'm hoping our Mellow Mushroom survives the next three days of torrential rain that is predicted. 

And I love the way the sunbeams shine down right in front of it... 

 In other news... Oscar the Security Dachshund decided that he needed to climb up on the stool (that is where I put my laptop when I'm upstairs during the day since we don't really have a table nearby for me to put it on)...He's watching my mom with the weed eater in the front yard. I just thought he looked so cute here... 

So intense!

 Keeping close watch...















In other news... I got a call from the Social Security office today. They have sent me lots and lots of forms and they received them back from the post office "not at this address". She confirmed the address they used and it's the right address. I had noticed the other day that the mailman had a little card in the mailbox that said, "Grant Family only - all others return to sender" and it worried me some because our last name is GANT not GRANT - and from a legal standpoint, my name is DARBY. But I thought... surely... the little rural mail carrier instruction card we had to fill out listed the names of the people who should get mail here and I was listed - would supercede any little mailbox notes. Furthermore, when I closed my P.O. Box I did a change of address form to send mail from the P.O. Box to this address. We made a new note for in the mailbox and I called the local post office and gave a whiny little rant about how this is causing delays in the disability process which is no bueno! I know that God's timing is perfect and I will dwell on those happy thoughts instead of going down the stressful bumpy road that has me running out of money before disability is approved.

I struggled a bit with grocery shopping today. Had another bad dizzy spell. They seem to happen when I walk for any length of time, if my pain is exacerbated, if it's humid outside... I had hoped that it was detoxing from the neurontin that was causing the dizzy thing. Apparently not. Some of the other side effects that were attributed to the neurontin were things like not having muscle control over elimination... it's not a Depends situation... it's just that when it's time to go, it's hard getting things going... my concern, the last time I saw the neurologist (two years ago) was that this is the beginning of a loss of control over those things and he felt - at the time - that it was just a side effect of neurontin. But now I'm not taking the neurontin and it's not getting better. For that matter... despite not working... I still have pain every single day and some days it's worse than it was when I was working full time. This thing is progressive and it's progressing too far and too fast for my liking.

But ... for now... all I can do is just relax, keep breathing, live the best life I can, be grateful for my family and how well they take care of me... and love on this.... sweet little Trouble Kitty (he's sleepy here, not mad) ...

And cuddle up with little dogs who like to share my recliner....

He's covered up in my skirt. I had only a knee length skirt on so he had to relocate to the couch with Mawmaw because she has all his warm fuzzy blankets.








One more picture...

My adorable unemployed game playing  grass cutting (occasionally) mop head of a teen. Y'all, those of you who pray, will you join me in praying for guidance in his life, that he will find his way. He's not doing *bad* things (that I know of) he just has no real idea of what he wants to do with his life and how to get that ball rolling. He needs to learn to drive. He needs a job. He needs to figure out what kind of college or technical school he wants to go to. Aspergers makes this transitional time of life so. much. harder. Having no paternal influence or encouragement... having a mom who has limited ability to take him places and help him push through the boundaries that make this whole process so difficult. His small motor skills are horrible. His handwriting looks like a six year old did it. Everywhere he is asked to fill out an application, he feels like "what's the use". I'm going to try to get him back to the jobs program he was in last year... see if we can take applications away from the work place so that I can fill them out for him. I don't know. He's just lacking motivation and I'm not good at pushing him.

Anyways... that's what's happening here in Cleveland, GA on July 2, 2013. Hope you're all preparing for a great 4th! We have watermelon and hotdogs - we're all set!

Love and hugs!

My Saturday

I hear that it's hot outside. I haven't gone out to find out for myself, unless you count the sixty seconds or so that I worked on cleaning the impossible to clean sliding glass door. I decided it was a chore beyond my skill set so I came back inside and snapped a photo of the view from the Whine Cellar. I'm sure there are places in the world that are lovelier but none of them are home to me like this view is... and none of them have a nice cozy nest for me to hang out in on a hot Summer day. I'll take this view for now, thank you very much!

I'm nesting right here. I know it looks sorta tacky with the furniture all covered up. We have lots of fur shedding creatures around here and a one still very messy still a teenager living here and it's just easier to cover it than to try to undo their damage. It's so delightfully cool here in the basement! It was only five Summers ago that I was dying in the ungodly Jacksonville, Florida heat on the third floor with the a/c out for a week or so. For that matter, I grew up without air conditioning although I had much less insulation then and we had one of those massive attic fans that sucks everything for a ten mile radius up...  And for that matter... I worked Summers at a laundrymat. We took in napkins and tray liners for the different airlines and had to wash, dry and then press them on these huge open ironing machines in a building with no air conditioning. The money was good and it was walking distance (and you could safely walk in Riverdale then) from home and, again, much less insulation. But now? Give me air conditioning or give me death! I don't sweat pretty any more.

Today my cousin's son got married. It's my mom's oldest sibling's youngest child's oldest child, my first cousin once removed. We are distant enough that it wasn't something we would have been invited to (or gone, you know how I am about going ANYWHERE) but close enough that I'm happy for them and can't wait to see some photos posted on Facebook. Congrats to Mac and Hannah!

Tomorrow my Aunt Ginger and Uncle Carl are bringing Mama a boat. Yes. A boat. It belonged to my Granddaddy (I think) and when he passed it went to my Aunt Linda's house and in the midst of cleaning things up following her husband's death (two weeks ago tomorrow, already) the boat is one of the things that is being redistributed. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about boating because although the lake is lovely to look at from my cool and comfy nest... it's not critter free... and I'm not entirely sure that I would be confident of not capsizing and ending up in that water. With the critters. I guess from a fishing standpoint it will be nice to have although I doubt Oscar the Fishing Dachshund should be in a boat. One day when it's not hot outside (maybe next November) I'll walk down to the dock and take pictures of Oscar fishing. He's INTENSE! He loves fishing so much that you can't say the word "fish" around him without him spazzing out.

I changed a few things on my blah-g, it was getting sort of stale looking. I also wanted to link to a few of the blogs I read. There are approximately 500 on my list but of course not all of them update daily and even the ones that do, I don't always get around to reading even though I'm in cyberspace just about every waking moment. I picked the ones I like the best and if you're looking to expand your blog library, you might check a few of them out. I seem to be drawn to blogs of young Catholic mothers or women battling infertility which, I know is odd. I did so very much love being a new mommy (and am so glad that I am now an old mommy) and I always loved birth stories. Catholic mommies have lots of birth stories. 'Jes sayin'. And the infertility blogs are fascinating because I cannot imagine NOT having had babies and it breaks my heart that some women have to work so hard to achieve that blessing. For me it just took a lustful glance. Had I not had my tubes tied at age 26 I would have a dozen kids, no doubt. I also love historical stuff and families with multiples. Basically, I just like knowing how people live and if the blog is well written or has a lot of pictures or an interesting storyline... I'm there. It's a great way to pass time.

Anyways... so this has been a really lovely, restful day. Muscle spasms are the pain of the day and I have been resisting the urge to o.d. on muscle relaxers. Laying down vs. sitting in a recliner helps that a bit. It's ok. It's not the worst pain I've ever had and it just bugs me only slightly so I will survive.

In the nest.
Looking out at the lake.
In the air conditioning.
Happy Saturday, y'all.