And Now It's My Home

Now it's come home.

It's a numbness that has become

far too familiar.

The rounds after rounds of gunfire 

 played on a loop on every channel

 hour after hour.

Because of a connection, I knew last night

the numbers were far higher than were 

first being reported.

I want to go give blood but cannot.

I want to scream for this all to stop.

It will not.

Heel Kickin'

Darling daughter has always wanted these,

but when you have calves the size of your wrist,

your lower leg sorta flops around

 in the top of the boot and you look 

like a little kid playing dress up in your Mom's shoes.

Let me start at the beginning:

I was thrilled to hear that Chania 

( whose name I have mispronounced for over a year, SO embarrassing, think Tanya with a CH)

would be visiting lala land this weekend.

We chatted briefly before her arrival about some things

 she would like to do when she arrived 

and Cowboy Boots topped the list.

Within about 10 minutes after picking her up, 

we were surrounded by thousands of boots

 at our local BOOT BARN.

Been here 34 years ~ never been there.

Only in blogland can you meet 

someone in cyber space,

get to know each other via emails, 

fly across the country, in her case, a 

different country, have some strange woman 

pick you up and cart you off to 

buy cowboy boots. Ya gotta love it!

Within about 60 seconds we were checking 

out the boots, being educated by staff 

about python, reptile, and ostrich,

and brand names, heel styles etc.  

Of course the first pair I spy that I want is around 300.00. Ostrich OUCH! 

Chania narrows her search down to a delicious pair 

with orange toppers and do you 

think I can find a pic on their web site? 

The closest I could find after 30 minutes of 

searching was this- just picture orange.

(neither of us remembered cameras)

Off we went up to Boulder City, a 30 minute drive

 for some mini antiquing, a lovely lunch, and

 then a quick run back to my home, 
where she met crazy Howie,
 but could not pet him or 

he would pee on her shoes, 

and also met DD soaking wet from a shower. 

Hannah's room too messy to show, 

my Krispy Christmas tree still waiting to come down.

Keeping it real folks.

All the while chatting and sharing and discovering that

we were both true to ourselves in our blogs. 
No surprises. I expected to meet a warm,
 intelligent, funny, sensitive woman

with good insights and depth of character
 and that is what I found. 
I did not meet a stranger, I met a friend.

I loved the look on her face when she 

learned we could be antiquing in CA in about 4 hours! 

"No way! I would have booked longer!" 

Me....Come back for a road trip with my friends" 

Ah, that feeling of friendship, 

excitement over shared interests. 

Next visit she'll stay with me and

 Howie won't be nervous and probably

 cuddle up in her bed if she'll let him.

He was already romantically licking her

socks and nuzzling her ankles while 

we visited in my studio. 

I was sad to return her to the hotel, but 

her hubby and friends were waiting 

for dinner and a show.

DD did a ride along on the return trip so

 that we could stop at the BOOT BARN after

 telling her that I had spied some coveted red boots.

34 years here never knowing of the BOOT BARN

 and I go into the place twice in 1 day?

DD ended up with these, fitting her stick thin calves.

She wore them down to CA this morning, beaming and

ready to kick up her heels.

I came home to a text from Chania about

 doing dinner tonight! 

We may do some heel kickin' of our own.

Life is grand. WOOT

ARK NEEDED

www.livius.org


My heart goes out to all those getting drenched 

and flooded. I was on a rain soaked ladder

 in my pj's at 6 am trying to unstop

a rain gutter on my porch, and feeling 

sorry for myself, although I know it 

could be so much worse and is 

for so many of you.

Instead of sewing a wee house yesterday,

I should have sewn together an ark!

Hope all of you dear friends are safe.

Dearest Son's plane broke (thankfully on the ground)

so he has yet to make it home. Mama is 

very anxious. 

***********

Joy * HE'S HOME * Joy

Saturday Rant

Kindness and consideration should be the norm not something

pulled out occasionally " just to be nice".

I witnessed some things this week that have stuck in my craw,

and I feel like a rant.

Last night I ran over to get a Bobbie Sandwiches at my local Capriottis,

( Thanksgiving in a sandwich)

and watched a man express extreme rudeness with no

provocation whatsoever.

They call your name when your order is ready and each time

he got up and yelled at the young man behind the

counter with "who did you just call?" Now granted, being

in a a casino it is quite noisy, but he sat about 30 feet away so

if he had hearing issues shouldn't he have

loitered a little closer? Yes, I said casino.

We here in lala land get pickup food at the casino

2 blocks from my house.

Anyway..

He finally got his order and before he sat down with it, he marched

over to the counter and threw his fries across the counter down

and over to the other side spewing them everywhere screaming "I said no salt!"

The girl who made them said quite nicely."Sir, there is no salt on them."

He pounded on the counter and said "make em again, NOW!" and sat down.

I was sitting next to the counter and heard the girl explain to a co-worker

there was no salt on them and asked what she was to do.

Then I see the guy's wife pick up one of her fries and taste it

and told him there was no salt. He ignored her.

I was then called to pick up my order.

When I got up there I said to the young man

"What an !#$%&^%"

He said laughing "yeah sure thing."

He then said "we're making them again the exact same way,

wonder what he'll do." I said "do you want me to stick around,

I'll ask for security to throw the bum out." He laughed, declined,

and said "they wouldn't do anything to him anyway."

As I walked by the guy I almost said something.

I have been known to do exactly that.

Oh, I was itching to. I actually paused, but I knew whatever

I said would fall on deaf ears, literally and figuratively.

Besides Hannah and I were in the middle of

Hepburn Movies- 4 classics in a row. Thank you TCM

So here are two young adults maintaining decorum while this

jerk of an adult sets a horrible example.

*********

Earlier in the week, I'm standing in the market line and

up runs a guy humphing and huffing and searching for

the shortest line. There are three -15 item lines, but they have

a few people in them so he searches the other regular ones and

there are two more each having two people.

I'm one of the two with maybe 20 items.

He very loudly starts to yell to anyone

"hey get some more lines open here, I have to be somewhere."

Now he is not laden with diapers or formula rushing home to a

hungry baby or one with severe abdominal issues,

nor does he have prescription drugs for an ill family member. Not

even dog food for the pet he forgot to feed (who should bite his butt anyway).

He has a bag of pretzels and cheap beer.

So he sighs and harumphs and fidgets and gives the clerks dirty

looks and even though I did not want to, I wanted THIS GUY GONE so

I offered him my spot, he pushes past me, slams his stuff on

the counter without giving me a glance and says..

" about ^&%$#(* time"

He pays, throwing the bills onto the counter,

not even bothering to hand them to the clerk or

look at her and storms out.

The clerk, who I've known for years says

"What an #@$%*&^"

I laughed saying

" Yeah, sure thing."