Nap Time...

OK.. before you all go talking smack about how old I am, let me tell you a little story. You remember my little stories, right?

I have often heard the phrase "it seemed as if it was happening to someone else" used to describe some event or situation that the writer just didn't believe .

I have never used this phrase before. Everything that has happened to me has been very much mine. I remember most everything that I've ever done, and have so few regrets about things that they are literally too few to mention. Good, bad or indifferent (strike the indifferent part. I am rarely indifferent about anything, as most of you know (grin)), my happenings are mine and clear and I have always been very present.

Except.. (and you knew this was coming, didn't you).

Except Mom. Mom's stroke SEVEN YEARS AGO (shit), was sudden, unexpected and unprepared for. I went from being a very independent woman to living in my mother's house in less than three weeks. The entire 20 months I lived with her is one of those "it seemed as if it happened to someone else" times. I look back on it and can't really wrap my head around any of it.. truly. I'm not going into detail about it except for one part.

The naps.

Combine my sleeping with a baby monitor (to hear her every night) with her needing to DO things all the time (and being incapable of much) and you come up with one sleepy gal.

Soooo... I started a routine. Every day I would say "I'm going to take a 20 minute nap". You know about naps. Too short and it does no good, too long and you're cranky. No problem there because at the end of 20 minutes my Mom would stand in the doorway and wake me up.

Whoopee...

Since my Mom's situation still tires me (although the little pills ARE helping), I started napping again.

Only now they've changed.

I turn on the heated mattress pad and the kitties and I pile in the bed (one on my hip and the other near my head where they can be petted until they run out of purrs) and we don't really sleep (well, I can't speak for them). We go to Oregon sometimes, and design the house and find great nooks and crannies for kitties and reading. We watch the river out the window. We check out the kitty run outside the house (in Oregon) to make sure it's safe. We go all kinds of places away from here.

Hooray for Nap Time...

I'm Talking and I Can't Shut Up...

Time to talk about something else before I turn into Auntie M (as Wyatt Burp so aptly described)...


Well, I'm better now, but it's taking a while.

I'm back on the little white pills.

See, here's the problem with this. I've ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY. Sure it's gotten worse since Mom, but my problem is that EVERYBODY'S business is my business.

In a nutshell.

This isn't anything new.. This isn't anything 'discovered in therapy'... this isn't anything hormonal or even age related (although, to digress a bit, age HAS made it worse). It most certainly IS Mom related, but, if I'm going to be honest (and I'm nothing if not honest) I've always been this way.

The problem NOW is that it has become... well... um... (ahem) more vocal. Let's say more OUTSPOKEN (that is to say, SPOKEN OUT loud to anyone to whom my knowledge and wisdom is due). Whether they want it or not. Need isn't a question, because they ALWAYS NEED IT...

You know them. The people who drive horribly. The people who talk loudly on cell phones in the bank or market or anywhere they feel (and, to be honest again, my sister told me I was one of these, so I rarely talk in public.. on my phone, that is, and I'm very very careful). People who disobey the rules (whether society's or mine.. doesn't matter... all the same).

They all deserve my guidance and wealth of experience.

What I'm trying to do is to NOT express this opinion (well, it's not an opinion, it's the TRUTH) OUT LOUD. Cuz it's not making them or me any happier.

Hence the little white pills.

They seem to be working a bit, although I DO reserve the right to question anyone's sanity or intelligence in the privacy of my own van.

I've just got to quit chasing them down and explaining it to them.

Snow From the Lake...

My sister's little vacation place on the lake... the view is from somewhere around there...

We haven't had this kind of snow (or continuous rain ) since the big El Nino (put a little tilde over the n, so it's pronounced ninnyo) in 1969. My sister remembers it because she couldn't get to classes in Santa Barbara, and I was in Hawaii, so it didn't rain at ALL over there... I think..

it's been 40 years...

but it's all pretty and good and we soooo need the rain and snowpack.

I Just Can't Help Myself...

This is her newest thing... the tongue part she learned from my Mom, who sticks it out at me at least once a day..

I'm not too sure it's a good thing.. from either of them! (ha!)

Too Much Stuff???

She's looking jusst a bit overwhelmed!!


But still cute as a bug!

I wonder if Paris Hilton got started this way.... hmmm...

Power Outage...

Not me... my sister.

Although we live about a half mile apart, we are on different grids. So her power went out this afternoon and it's still gone. They may not get it back until tomorrow!

This is very uncommon in this modern city of ours... I mean, it's not like we live in ...oh... say...Tennessee, or .. um.. Georgia... or.. Michigan.. um.. or Florida... or... even Alabama.. or Missouri...um.. or Kentucky...

Well, you Deadwoodians get what I mean.

My sister's not happy, but I think the picture looks really cozy as hell!!!

Reluctantly Moving On...

Well, not ME, but my sister is at least... Cruises make me shudder...

They're on this big boat (my grandfather would kill me, he had a distinct definition about what was a BOAT and what was a SHIP... I got tired of it, so they're all big boats to me (grin)).

Anyways, my sister and brother in law and friends are on a short voyage to ... um... Mexico. I told her not to get off the boat. Ever. There is some serious S*%* happening in Mexico that has no respect for tourists or any other non violent persons.

Pretty boat, tho...

Always That Smile...

Just a couple more from a Rachal visit to the big city.. outside of VICTORIA'S SECRET (shocked look)

I don't care when you caught her or what was going on, that smile always lit up the place..



Notice that I'm always taking the pictures (grin)

It's Just Not Right...

The loss of Rachal leaves such a hole in the fabric of our little Deadwood Community that it will always be felt.

You can see the smile, but you can't hear the laugh that it accompanied. I always came away from a conversation with Rachal in a better mood than I entered. Always. She had that kind of welcoming about her that made you want to join any group in which she stood. You knew things would be more fun there...

I will miss you, sweet Rskoo... I truly will.

Happy New Year and All That ... That... um.. Stuff!

I've been told I'm being lax in blogging...

Blame it on the drugs...

So, until I get CALMER here's something to tide you all over..

The cutest baby... absolutely..



and Grandad... who is just OWNED by her.. lock, stock and barrel...


,
oh.. and the poker club has been delayed for a while as she is starting a new nighttime routine...