Updated May 13, 2008

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May 5, 2008 - Ah, May.  The month of green grass and pretty flowers.  I am on vacation today and tomorrow AGAIN to use up the last of my days.  I have no big plans.  I will just veg out.  I was hoping to have our Economic Stimulus money by now so I could buy some flats of flowers, but alas, we've yet to receive it.  Odd how humans criticize things and complain about things, but then when we don't get it, we bitch as well.

Over the weekend we had a visitor - a neighbor's dog named Taz.   A sweet female doggie that was very well behaved and very friendly, but she had escaped the confines of her back yard fence and had taken it upon herself to live life to it's fullest and roll in any pile of any type of stinky thing.  She was covered in, well, crap.  Every time I would go outside in the morning on Saturday, she would come up being very social and lead me to the back yard.  Finally, since I was so dense I didn't realize what she was trying to tell me, she pawed at one of our back trees and looked up.   She was quite proud.  She had treed Stewart!  I laughed out loud, as Stewart was WAY up in a tiny little "Y" shaped branch holding on for dear life with his fat belly hanging over the "Y" part.  Taz was very very proud she had treed the kitty, and Stewart was very content to stay up in that tree while Taz was down below.  I had never met Taz before, but she presented herself with confidence and acceptance of all things EXCEPT cats. 

Later in the day a very frustrated young woman came to our house looking for her dog.  I met a new neighbor!  She mentioned she had a dog that jumped the fence.  A friend had been watching Taz for them as they were out west on vacation.  (They also got married in Las Vegas while they were there!)  She said she got a phone call while they were at O'Hare airport from the friend saying that Taz was GONE.  The friend felt very badly about this.   I told her Taz had been here and treed Stewart and I had taken pictures, and I had no clue where the dog was now.  However, as soon as the lady drove away to look for Taz on the next street, here came Taz.  My husband ran inside and got a leash and we hooked her up and stuck her in my car so I could follow the poor woman and let her know we had Taz.  Just then the woman was coming back down our street and I flagged her down.   The reunion was stinky but sweet.  That was the big excitement for my weekend!   (Oh, and Stewart did eventually come down once I brought my oldest son outside to coax him.  I think he thought a big male was protection enough from a dog, and he made his way down the tree ever so slowly to my son's reach.  He wouldn't come down to me alone!) 

I usually set up my coffee at night after I make my husband's batch (as he's on third shift) so in the morning all I have to do is flip the switch and I have a pot of coffee in no time.  This morning I flipped the switch and went about my morning business and came back later to get a cup, and I had a nice pot of hot water.  I had forgotten to add the coffee.  DUH!  I started over...

May 6, 2008 - OK, this is very funny (to me) - our local TV station has weather posted, of course, like any good local TV station would, and this is what it has said about our area for the last 18 hours... notice that the current temperature in Southwest lower Michigan is 95 degrees.  HAHAHAHA.   I'm sorry, I find this very humorous.  ("Boy, and they talk about global warming, man - they were RIGHT!")  It's 46 degrees here in my little chunk of the woods this morning, and the high will be nigh on 74 degrees today. 

On Tuesday and Thursday my youngest has to go in early for jazz band.  I take him in without getting 'ready' per say - I mean, I have on my jammie pants and whatever top I was wearing and I don't even think to comb my hair, I just get in the car and take the boy in.  This morning on the way back home I was going 35 down a 25 mph street, and noticed the local police sitting at a baseball field.  I slowed down like a good girl and was not pulled over, but I did look in the rearview and saw what I looked like!  Oh My!  Had the officer had pulled me over for doing 10 miles over, he would have immediately thought a homeless person who was down on their luck had stolen a car.  My hair was sticking straight up and out in no discernable pattern.  I looked down to see my one pant leg was up to my knee on my sweat pants and the other was practically covering my over sized slipper on that side.   The old T-shirt I was wearing had a sleeve on the right and none on the left.   (I remember I had started to cut that old shirt down to be sleeveless for outside mowing, but apparently forgot what I was doing before finishing.)  It wasn't pretty.   I will have to at least comb my hair in the morning next time. 

May 7, 2008 - The inside of the house is covered in a thin layer of field dust.  They finished plowing the field across the road last night.  There is grit everywhere.  DUST BOWL type grit.  I am not complaining, however.  At least the field is being plowed for corn or what ever they happen to plant and not being built up with houses.   I dread that.  I don't want the field across the road to ever be sold and built up.  That is where all the cool wildlife lives around here, back in those woods and they entertain me in that field.  Sigh.  I'll take three days worth of dusting to suburban sprawl any day.

Yesterday was the last of my vacation days for a while.  I roll over again on May 11th and get another five weeks.  I didn't do anything exciting on vacation but I was not at work, so in a way that is exciting.  I took one heck of a nap, boy howdy.  I can't remember the last time I slept that hard.  Hence the reason, I'm sure, that I'm up at 3:30 this morning.   So far I've gotten several loads of wash done and the dogs are fed already... I dread going back to work yet I don't.  I like to work.  I like what I do.   I just don't like the politics of things sometimes and the PANIC mode that's on most of the time, but all in all I really like my job.  It is, after all, a job - and I am lucky at this point to have one!

One of the cats finally brought me a mole this morning on the stoop.  I made a fuss to all of them and petted them and said, "Good Kitties!" even though I know it wasn't Stewart who did the hunting.   He's just not a hunter.  He gallops loudly when running and thinks that is being 'stealthy'... sigh.  However, I was positive in my attitude and made a mole fuss, pointing to the dead mole and clapping and gushing over all three of their hunting prowess. 

I saw my first hummingbird of the season yesterday - FINALLY!  I was so excited I yelled, which of course scared the hummingbird away, but I saw one!  Later than normal, but then again, it's been a bit colder than normal for early spring.  I changed my sugar water to assure that they had fresh food, and I will remember not to yell in joy when I see the next one.

May 11, 2008 - It was an interesting last few days to say the least.  Work Wednesday - Friday was quite busy and overwhelming and by Friday it felt like I had worked 5 days instead of three.  Sigh.  However, Friday was fun on the 'side' in many ways.  I walked into work serenading Jane who was filling in at the front desk.   I modified "Mandy" to be "Janie" and that started the day long battle between Jane and myself of "songs that stick in your head and drive you nuts that happen to have women's names in them."  Back and forth all day we would 'give' each other songs that would of course stay in your head and run over and over and over again. 

The day was full of songs.  Jane countered with "Delilah" via our message service, and the day went on from there.  I believe we covered "Windy", "Wake up, Little Susie", "Penny Lane", "Lucille","Copacabana" and tons more.  It was funny.  Little blurbs throughout the day that kind of broke up the intensity of the 'overwhelming' part of work.  Jane won, however, because as she was leaving for the day, she came back and personally sang the opening verse of "Hello Dolly."

One of our friends and coworker who had a baby recently brought her wee one in.  Brenda brought in Ethan and he is a cutie.   He has a full head of brown hair and looked so angelic.  I love to see babies, then think to myself afterwards that I am SO GLAD I'm past that part in my life!   Children are a blessing, even more so when they can talk, walk, and support themselves.

Later still Jane's daughter Jess brought in the doggie she rescued - Buddy.  He is a mix of Jack Russell with ... well, we're not sure, but he is a doll.  He really liked  my coworker Doug, and went right to him.  He was scared of the rest of us, however.  (I assume when you are a dog that was probably abused then rescued, you would be a bit leery of humans...at least I would be.)  Buddy would sit, but not really 'sit' as his butt hovered above the floor.  Jess said that is just how he sits.  I was just impress with Buddy's incredible sense of buttocks control and balance.  

Oh, before I forget, my husband called me on Thursday morning.  "Guess what?" he asked in a child like I've done something I'm sure you will hold over my head for years to come kind of voice.   "What?" I asked.  (I was so busy at work and being the ever supporting wife, I had little interest in his call unless he had hit something head on or lost a body part...)  "Well, I took a vacation day for tonight..." he said in a slow drawl (and I am thinking to myself "So?  You have to call me because you are taking a night off?") then continued to say, "...and I bought a motorcycle!" 

After a long pause, I said, "Oh really?" in my best 'you bought an expensive item without consulting me first you rat bastard - can you tell by the tone of my voice I am a bit irked ' voice.  He had bought a Yamaha Stratoliner (or is it a Stratocaster?)  All the guys at his place of work are getting bikes due to high gas prices, and we had talked about my husband getting a bike as well, but I didn't think he'd do it without discussing it, price wise.   My husband has had several motorcycles over the years.  I am not worried he'll get killed.  (After all, he's highly insured and he's a good cyclist.)  I was just stunned he would just 'go and do it' without prior firm discussion.  I told him I was very busy and suggested we talk about the 'new member' of the family after I got home.

Later that day the phone rings again.   I couldn't answer it, so there was a message waiting for me.  Then my cell phone rang.  I didn't answer it, and there was a message beeping in my purse.   Finally I listened to the messages.  My husband was stranded (on his NEW bike) about five miles away.  His new bike just quit working;  it wasn't getting gas.   I laughed out loud when I heard his message.  After calling him back, I told him to call the place he just bought it from and ream them a new one and get them out there.  He wanted me to pull him home with a rope, but I said NO!  "You call them and tell them their NEW motorcycle isn't running and you want them to come get you and you and ..." (Needless to say I went on a bit in a huff.)  Finally he agreed, found the business card from the salesman, and called him.  He called me back to tell me they were coming to pick him and the bike up. 

After continuing to work for a bit, and assuming that he was safe and 'he got himself into this, he can get himself out of it and all'  I decided to go sit with him.  How heartless was I to let my husband sit alone on the side of the road with his non-working new bike?  I got in my car and headed over to where he was.  He seemed happy to see me.  He plopped in the front seat and sighed.  I laughed.  He laughed.  Then he just sighed a lot.

It is a HUGE bike, mind you.  I was thinking it would kill a small child if it fell on them, it's that big.  While we waited, I asked my hubby if he locked the doors at home, and he said, "Well, Yes!   I'm not stupid" so I called my youngest son's cell phone (who was due to get off the bus and has not been carrying a house key lately.)  He answered his cell, and I asked him where he was, and he said, "Home, duh!"  "Are you in the house?" I queried.  "Yeah, why?"  "You don't have a house key, wasn't the door locked?"  "Yeah, the front door was locked, but the back door was wide open..."  I gave the wee one a lecture about carrying a house key from now on then gave my hubby a lecture about locking the back door.  At least the young one was home safe.  He asked where I was.  "Sitting here with your Dad, waiting for someone to come get his new motorcycle that he bought that doesn't work."  I had son on speaker phone.  Young son laughed and hubby rolled his eyes.

I called work to let them know where I was.  After telling Doug where I was and why I was there, he laughed, too.  Hubby said, "I'm glad I can bring such joy to everyone!"  I explained to him it was just plain funny.  "You buy a new bike and you are all hyped up and immediately it doesn't run.  It's like a Catch 22 kind of funny.   People are going to laugh." 

After 20 minutes, and after the humor of it all had drained from my husband completely,  I made him call the bike dealership back to find out where their pick up was.  Apparently they sent out their delivery boy with the truck/trailer from Paw Paw (which is where he got the bike, at Paw Paw Motorcycles, which is a good 1/2 away to begin with) and he got lost.  We waited another 1/2 or so before the kid showed up.  The delivery guy was smaller than my youngest son, and there was no way he could wrangle a bike into a trailer.  My husband pushed it up the ramp for him.

The kid said he'd never driven a truck w/a trailer and a bike on the highway before, and asked how to get back to Paw Paw without taking a major highway.  My husband gave him directions, then looked across the road at me and mouthed, "Will you please take me home?"  I nodded my head and but I laughed even more.

I took the poor guy home, and then I went back to work.  (He had told me on the way home how much the bike cost, and that is when I stopped laughing.  Oy.)  I told everyone that "I got a new motorcycle for Mother's Day!" in a joking kind of way, but I was still a bit miffed over the whole deal.  Sigh.

However, my gift from hubby for mother's day was truly not the motorcycle - it was my own personal telescope!  I was quite thrilled and now it's my turn to laugh and be laughed at, as it's done nothing but rain and be cloudy.  This is my 'Catch 22' thing.  They predict icky weather for a few days.  I won't be able to sight it in until next weekend.  It's computerized and can slew to the star or location I want on it's own, but it has to know where it is first, and currently it will just sit in my living room until I can introduce it to my personal sky.  (I did take it outside after I assembled it yesterday and looked at the trees across the field from us.  I could see the turkeys on the ground doing turkey things and birds in the trees like they were right in front of me!  There was a crow picking meat off of a deer skeleton and I could even see the ribs on that dead deer!!  I looked at the horses in the field out back and saw what brand of trailer was sitting back in the field.  I viewed signs down the road and I could read them clear as a bell - well, besides them being backwards, but still!!  It will be so cool once I can see the Moon up close and personal and the stars and the like!  I really can't wait.)

For Mother's Day, my daughter got me a ton of cool flowers to plant!  I will do this as soon as it stops raining.  It had better stop raining ... I just looked at the weather and it's supposed to be cloudy and rainy all week and next weekend as well.   Arghhhhhh.  I should quit complaining and be thankful that we didn't get those horrible storms they did down south, huh?

My oldest son took us all out to the dinner as well.  It was a wonderful Mother's Day all in all.  I got flowers, a telescope, dinner (and a motorcycle!)  I am a lucky woman and blessed a million times over.  They like me - they really like me!!

May 13, 2008 - I forgot to mention the fact that the only issue with hubby's humongous motorcycle that day was due to the reserve tank not being turned on...I guess they can turn off the flow between the main tank and the reserve tank.  His bike was returned the next day.  Did you know that thing weighs 782 pounds?  782 POUNDS!???   Sigh and Oy.

I took my scope out last night (still light out) and looked at the moon.  How awesome.  Sigh.  Craters - the thing if full of craters!  It was a wondrous site.  It is still very cold at night, so I didn't take her out after dark to align the computer part of it.  Just seeing the moon (and the horses pooping a mile away) was enough for me for now.  I could even focus in on a bunch of dragon flies that were over in that field!  Holy Crap! 

I also got some of my flowers planted last night as well.  I am thinking it won't frost this week - being the positive person that I am - so I took a chance.  (I bet I could walk a mile away with my telescope and see my flowers as if I was really HERE. ) 

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