Whew - what a week

Yippee - an early weekend and a longer one too - I took Saturday and Monday off - just because! I'm going to see Lion King at the Kennedy Center on Saturday - and REALLY looking forward to that!

Sunday will be more cleaning in the "spare" rooms that have become general dumping grounds for all things not in favor! Hopefully I'll be able to get all junk & real garbage out of my assigned room and move on to actual cleaning! There's still another room for me to do - but that's going to mean heavy lifting so I'm going to have to have massive help!

Monday will be a day of rest and relaxation (along with dusting and working from home - I know but there are things that HAVE to get done before Tuesday!!).

PS There are 131 days until the election - if it were over tomorrow I'd be very very happy!

Burning . . . eyes, throat, lungs . . .

The Dismal Swamp is burning - North Carolina is burning - and all the smoke is here in Kempsville outside (and inside) my house!

Too bad they're not making whiskey - there's peat a plenty burning around here - and all we're getting is watery eyes, coughs and scratchy throats! This morning it looked foggy but it was actually smoke haze in the air . . . between the heat a few weeks ago (with smoke then too!) and the increasing amount of smoke, this summer is stacking up as one of a kind!

The newspaper said that North Carolina officials said that the rainfall from a hurricane would be needed to put out the fires there - peat is up to 12 feet deep. Here in the Dismal it's about 3 feet deep so we DON'T need a hurricane - just 10 inches of rain!! Maybe the rain expected this evening or tomorrow will take some of the smoke out of the air - time will tell!

Oh well - I'll stock up on Sudafed (the REAL stuff), Excedrine and plenty of fluids!

PS - in the klutz department (again), I (apparently) tossed my wrist brace out with some garbage - SIGH. I've gotten another (different) one from Walgreens and will hit the medical supply store on Monday to get another one like the old one! GEEZE

Goodbye Tim Russert . . .

I didn't know Tim Russert personally but I've taken his unexpected death harder than I would have ever thought. Perhaps it's because we're the same age (actually he was a day older!), or maybe because it was so sudden.

He's definitely going to be missed.

UNCLE . . .

I've had enough already! It's not even the middle of June and already we've had several days in a row of 90+ weather (in some cases 100 degree weather). It's not August - not even the end of July!!

On top of that gas is costing almost $4 a gallon here - we're a bit lower than some other places and I just cringe at the thought of the electric bill next month! I don't think the A/C or the fans have stopped running (fans help keep the a/c a little higher - probably a vain attempt to save some money!!). We did cook outside so that was something but you certainly couldn't stay outside long - at least I couldn't.

Oh well - fingers crossed for no power failures and we're not going to mention hurricanes!!

Interesting Times . . .

The supposed Chinese "curse" is May You Live In Interesting Times. I've never been sure why living in such times would be a curse but I'm pretty sure we're there!

The first First Lady I remember is Maime Eisenhower - with bell skirt and peter-pan collar - she seemed like a nice grandma lady to a kid!

But I've now seen a woman make a very good run for the Presidency - good for her! And an African-American is now the nominee of the Democratic party - WOW talk about interesting times! So dispite the curse, I'm thrilled to live in these times!

My grandmother saw automobiles, airplanes and space shuttles. I've seen men walk on the moon, clear, closeup pictures of Jupiter and Mars, and women serving on Navy ships. I was in high school before I had a classmate who black and now I've voted in a primary election (and soon the general election) for a black man for President of the United States. Interesting times indeed!

So I can only hope we continue to live in interesting times - daily life can seem mundane and routine - but these special events certainly do add spice!

And people wonder why I find history so interesting and fun!

Thanks for small things

Reading a friend's blog I realize that I have it pretty easy in the "neighbor" department! Some problems - some lack of mowing, etc. but nothing like the mess she's facing every day. I wish there was some way to help . . .

My broken wrist silver lining - here it is 4 months after the "event" and I've still not started biting my nails again - and I actually have nails! To be sure, they're not really all that strong and a couple have broken but not as far back as I used to gnaw them! It's been a little hard getting used to typing with nails - never knew it could be so difficult!

There's a "new wind blowing" at MPOW and I, for one, am extremely pleased about it! Looking forward to the upcoming changes . . . The Winds of Change was a training video we used to have, narrated by Patrick Stewart . . . I can hear him now!!

Almost Sunday

It's almost Sunday, I can't sleep (probably slept too late this morning) and we're heading to NVa tomorrow morning to make sure the grass is cut and all is well! I'm sure I'll be sleepy soon!

I did have a productive, if frustrating afternoon. I worked on my library's Summer Reading Club web page(s). It was productive because I got some of them finished - frustrating because the program's preview doesn't work and requires publishing to view the results. Things didn't line up exactly the way I'd like (or the way it appeared within the program) but it's not too bad! I have more to do - the teen pages in particular so I may work on them some more and see if I can't get it straight!

It was supposed to rain today but it didn't - but it certainly was hot. The first day it was really hot - upper 80s - and humid. Can't wait to see this summer's electric bills!

I'm amazed that it's June already - on Monday it will be the start of the fourth month of the "broken wrist". Amazing. Of course, my wrist isn't broken anymore - it's fixed (a little crooked but that's ok). But it certainly isn't back to "normal" and I just hope it will be someday. It gets better day by day - sometimes it's two steps forward, one step backwards but, in general, progress is being made! I can hold many things with my right hand - I can write with it (although it gets tired and sore easily) but I can't easily make a fist unless it's in the morning - my hand (and fingers in particular) still swell and I can't turn my hand palm up - it goes further than before but still not all the way. Oh well - I guess it really is time for physical therapy - much as I've been hoping to avoid it!

Well - it's after midnight and now June 1 - time for some sleep and a trip later this morning.

Later . . .