HoundBlog

The sky today was clearly blue
but just what shade could you
call this impossible to describe
blue, so blue — cerulean blue?

Some days the sky is not so blue
today the sky is gray 
And clouds of soot and black
and dirty white across the sky are spilled

The evening sky is indigo
It soothes your mood and lets you go
Off to sleep to dream of days
When the sky is blue so blue

The morning sky is a blue so pale
Filled with light and hope and glows
Like love colored and tells the tale
in shades of glorious blue 

I love the sky when it is blue
A painter’s canvas primed and waiting
For trees and birds and airplanes
Their pictures ‘cross it painting.

It’s Monday again. What beautiful weather we had over the weekend! Gloriously sunny days that were not too hot, not too cold. I mowed the lawn Saturday and it was sheer poetry to be out in the fresh air, with the sky so blue it hurt your eyes and the trees painting messages across it with thier leaves of crimson, gold and umber as they swayed in the breeze. Saw a hawk stooping on some prey and it was so beautiful to see it flying against that cloudless sky. I spent quite some time trying to decide just what shade of blue it was — kept thinking cerulean, but don’t think that’s quite the right one.

In doing a google search on the word cerulean, I came up with this site which shows a graphical representation of the color, but it doesn’t (to my eye) match the word description of it as I don’t see that much green in the painted swatch. It’s an interesting site, though, as it talks about colors and their origins and history.

Ken got home from the race Sunday around 2:15pm. He was sunburned, tired and still a bit pumped from the great time he had. He gained 5 lbs from all the eating they did. He said there were around 15 people at his rib dinner on Saturday night — some of the Germans from the plant came up for the race and were invited to dinner. Ken had some neighbors at the camp site from New York who followed the races all over the country in their motor homes. He said they cooked the entire weekend and kept asking Ken and his friends over to join them. He said all they did all weekend was eat 🙂

On a sad note, we lost Nyssa yesterday. You’ll remember that I took her to the vet last week and he prescribed some pain relivers for what we thought was a muscle strain. Turns out she was in renal failure and we had no choice but to let her go yesterday afternoon. She would have been 12 today. I wrote a poem for her which you can read HERE.

Well, need to get to work. Hope your day is a wonderful one.

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Friday the 13th.

Glad I’m not superstitious.

Talked to Ken this morning – he was just eating breakfast at 9:45 am — that’s REALLY late for him! He couldn’t remember when they went to bed last night (which means it was probably this morning 🙂 ), but they did see all of qualifying which he said was awesome.

I got up at 2:30 this morning so I could drive the hour to Greenville to meet a friend who was helping place dogs in foster care for our mutual friend who has had a stroke. Kathy’s daughter and a friend are putting the dogs in with different friends around SC & NC until Kathy’s outlook is more defined. They are thinking she won’t ever be able to go back to living alone, but she’s one determined lady, and if anyone can overcome this, she would be that person. I’ll spend most of tomorrow grooming the dogs as two of them are Yorkies and they are in show coat and thier coats are in bad shape. I just hope I can save them, but as most of you know, I’m not a long-haired dog person.

This has really made me step back and re-think my life with dogs.

Getting my hair cut tonight after work. I picked a style that I think will work and we’ll just see what the hairdresser says. I may be all wet, who knows.

Back to the grindstone.

Love to all,

Margaret

Ken left this morning for Charlotte, NC and the Lowes Motor Speedway where he and 2 other guys from BMW will immerse themselves in a redneck Nascar frenzy. He’s maintained for weeks now that he is not as excited as his friends are, but I think he’s lying. He sure appeared to be pretty excited to me, although he was trying to hide it.

Take for example his careful planning of menues for the trip. Buddy is bringing steaks to grill, John is going to fix a low country shrimp boil. Ken asked me a zillion times what should he fix. We found some really nice looking boneless pork country style ribs in Sam’s club, so there was his answer! He carefully selected the John Boy and Billy’s barbecue sauce, then meditated over the sides. He settled on baked beans and cole slaw. A feast fit for ….. well a tailgate party at least.

Another example of his excitement over the trip was his very humbly coming to me Monday night and asking me “are you sure it’s OK for me to go this weekend?”  That’s a SURE sign that he wants to go so badly he can’t stand it 😛 Like I would say “No, honey, I think you’ve neglected stuff around the house too much and if you’re going to take 4 days off from work, you need to spend them at home mowing grass, painting and all the other stuff that needs to be done.” when all he’s done is talk about the upcomming trip and his plans for the last 3 weeks.

I just hope his weather holds out for him. It’s supposed to turn down right cold Friday night with lows in the 30’s. I know he packed enough clothes for 2 weeks :), so I’m sure he’ll be fine as long as there’s no rain to rain out the race. He asked me what souvenier I wanted him to bring me (his choices to me were a Jeff Gordon jacket, a Jeff Gordon shirt or a Jeff Gordon whatever I wanted LOL). I told him it didn’t HAVE to be Jeff Gordon that as long as it wasn’t Tony Stewart, I would be happy with whatever he brought me.  I’ll admit that I think Jeff is a good driver and is a much better sport than some of the others, but told Ken that Kasey Khane and Mark Martin were two other drivers that I admired although both were a little short for me.

I just think I know way too much about NASCAR drivers to be as uninterested in the sport as I really am. It just all sinks in when you hear it as much as I do, living in a house with a NASCAR fan.

Well, I must zoom off to work now.

Love to all,

Margaret

Spent yesterday working from home and kept my nose to the grindstone, so didn’t post. I also stayed wrapped in a cocoon of comfort by shutting out the world for the day. While I emerged this morning to a world still facing nuclear war, at least I have a center of peace within to draw upon. God can handle this situation and I don’t HAVE to worry about it although I need to keep praying to Him to keep me on that particular straight and narrow. 

On a more frivolous note, I’m thinking about changing hairstyles. I’ve had this same cut for years now and am kind of tired of it. I’ve looked at a few websites and picked out a couple of styles I think might work for me. I have to keep in mind that I have no forehead to speak of and that my hair is stick straight, coarse and thick (and before you go into raptures over that, let me tell you, it brings it’s own set of problems that are every bit as aggravating as fine, thin hair, or curly hair owners have expressed to me!). It also grows forward, so making it go back is not an option. The best I can hope for is to sweep it to the side. I think I want to grow my bangs out and do a chin length layered cut that I can style without needing gobs of goop or a perm to hold in place. I’m going to take my pictures to the girls in AR and get thier opinion at lunch today. Will let you know what the verdict is 😛

The baby bird is growing up. He’s almost all feathered out now and I’m hoping the parents are planning to begin weaning him pretty soon as they are already laying more eggs. He IS a he as evidenced by the bright orange cheek patches on his face. I’ve been taking him out of the nest box every day for the past week or so and holding him so he gets used to being handled. I let him perch on one of the seed bins yesterday for a few minutes. He didn’t show any interest in the food there, but did hold on to the perch pretty good, so I think it’s just a matter of time now. He sounds like Taco when she’s stuck behind a closed door. Guess it’s time to be thinking up a name for him. Any suggestions? He’s a Normal like his dad Photo. Dad’s name is Billy Badbeak and Mom is Whitney.

Haven’t found any new interesting blogs lately.

Enough prattle for now. It’s time to get back to work.

Love to all,

Margaret

I feel like I’ve entered a time-warp. North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon. This is the kind of nightmare we lived in while I was growing up in the 60’s and it’s no picnic having that kind of threat hanging over your head. We’ve gotten past the point of thinking that hiding under our desks will protect us from any kind of nuclear fall-out and most of our underground bunkers have been filled in or are so pathetic as to be no protection from such an event at all.

Kim Jong Il has proven to have an unstable personality and he rules his country with an iron fist. He has no regard for the international community and has already ignored their outcry against his earlier ICBM tests. I greatly fear that the US or others who fear him striking without warning will declare war on North Korea and that it will be a horrible thing for the world as I fear he will shoot his nuclear weapons indiscriminately towards any who anger him. I hope and pray that Mr. Bush employs his most patient and delicate of negotiators in this time of crisis.

I fear for my children and my grandchildren; for your children and your grandchildren. I pray for thier continued safety and good health.

Love to all,

Margaret

I’ve started reading some other blogs.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re all sufferring from some disorder, but I haven’t figured out exactly WHAT disorder. Just that all of us who blog on a regular basis have some kind of personality abberation.

For instance THIS (DON’T CLICK THIS IF YOU’RE EASILY OFFENDED) fellow is definitely one brick short of a load. What’s scary is that he’s in St. Louis — I know that’s a large city and chances are, he and Colin will never cross paths, but then again….Colin — if you get a chance to photograph this dog, I want the unretouched REAL picture 😛

And then, there’s THIS guy who is obviously very confused about which political party he does/should belong to, but with whom I so easily identify!

On the home front….

I had to take Nyssa to the vet today — she turns 12 in a few days and for the last couple has spent her time lying under the coffee table shivering. I thought there was something really badly wrong with her. Vet didn’t find anything except a rather full anal gland which he expressed and said could have caused her some degree of discomfort to the extent that she exhibited this behavior. He also gave her some pain medication just in case that wasn’t the root cause and told me to bring her back if she continued to act this way. By the time we got home, she was not shivering any more, and was giving me these reproachful looks as if to say “Mom — you know how to do that yourself. Why did you have to take me to that place for some stranger to accost my beautiful body like that?”

You just have to live with Nyssa to know that she REALLY thinks this way. She has these huge, round black eyes that can pierce your soul and she makes her mouth go a certain way that leaves no doubt in your mind that you’ve fallen short of her expectations.

See — I TOLD you — all us bloggers are loco!

Love to all,
Margaret

Another week is nearly over. Nothing really to show for the time spent, either. Some weeks are like that I guess — you just kind of spin your tires on the road of life. Oh, you do the day-to-day stuff — get up, go to work, take care of the animals and the people in your life, but beyond the minituae, nothing really gets accomplished. Sometimes you almost need that mundaneness– the stress of creating, working towards and achieving those big goals is tiring! The plane of normalcy helps us to appreciate the highs and despair the lows.

I think what I’m trying to say is that I’m rather thankful for this week of calm. 😛

Of course, now that I’ve brought it to your attention that it has been calm, all he!! is going to break loose — that’s just Murphy’s Law, you know.

I’m ready for a happy event, though, if I get to have any say-so in this high/low stuff. I’ve shed enough tears of late and been worried enough for awhile. It’s time for the god of frolic to set loose some silliness.

Here’s wishing you all some happiness and fun.

Love to all,

Margaret

Yesterday I attended the funeral of my friend, Janet’s father. I had never met the man, but from Janet’s and Martha’s stories about him and from what was said at his funeral, I missed knowing a truly special man. It was a lovely service for a lovely man.

Ken went on to the show in my stead so I could make it to the funeral. He got reserve with both Oscar and Butterfly, but he elected to not take Payne. He’s not into prep work and she would have required brushing before going into the ring.

Next weekend is a one-day show in Augusta and the two little boys make their debut there. Tomorrow they turn 6 months old.

Today is John’s birthday and he turns 35. Time sure goes by quickly as it seems not that long ago when he was 17 and tearing up all our cars.

Not much to say today.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Love to all,

Margaret