Monday, May 26, 2014

How was your Holiday Weekend?

How was your weekend?
I worked Saturday and Sunday.
It was a total madhouse, filled to the brim with pets.
Lots of big rowdy dogs and lots of special need animals.
A 15 year old Vizsla who wobbled as he walked so we have to lay down yoga mats for him so that he didn't slip on the floor.
Then there's the ancient Pugs.
The Chihuahua with a heart condition
and the diabetic cat that needs her insulin.
Yep, pretty much a typical weekend. LOL!

When I wasn't at work, I was at home working on the yard.
I got all my garden stuff out of storage.
My birdbath.

I LOVE that thing.
The glaze on it formed a "moon".
A wonderful accident. 
When I saw the birdbath a few years back at the Garden Center, I had to have it.
(the fact that it was marked down for an End of Summer Sale sealed the deal.)
But my astrological sign (if you believed that sort of thing) is ruled by the moon.
and then my name means Moon Goddess.
So yeah, I love it.

I also got this fountain at another End of Summer Sale.

So many people have walked by my house and commented on it.
I like the soft sound of water.

Last Fall I dug up my front yard that was a huge mass of perennial flowers and I put down grass seed.
This Spring I had to buy a lawnmower!
I haven't had one for years, I just got by with a weed-whacker.
I found this electric one on Amazon and yesterday it worked wonderfully!

It has a little grass catcher that attaches to the back and I had to empty it a couple of times but
I was in Heaven.
The smell of fresh cut grass is one of my favorite scents of all time.

I made two BIG flowerbeds that I will show later when the flowers have grown.
I dragged a big wood workbench out of the basement and up the cellar steps and across the patio.
I'm going to make it into a potting bench.
I hung up new line on my clothesline that I put in last Fall.
I was outside non-stop.
My neighbor (the nice one) came out several times each day to do yard things and commented about how I had to be exhausted.
He just doesn't know how I do it, he said.
I laughed and said that I just have to.
But then I got to thinking about a comment a mother of a friend of mine had said many many years ago.
She had shook her head at her daughter and me as we left to go work out.
She thought we were foolish and wasting our money.
She said she got her exercise taking care of the house.
She said cleaning and tending to her SEVEN kids kept her fit.
But her point was, keep busy and take care of what needs to be done
and it might just be all the exercise a person needs.
That's how I'm going to view it from now on.
It's my exercise.

Tonight, I'm exhausted
and HOT. 
The temperature shot up and it's muggy.
We are all hot.
Poor Ghost was laying in front of the window hoping to catch a breeze.

So, that's how my holiday weekend went.
How was yours?

Saturday, May 24, 2014

I'm Back!....Let's talk about Online Dating.

I'm back to blogging.
I'm not done with my list but I'm to a point where I feel I can ease back
and write.
I have a lot of things to "talk" about.
But tonight I will just do a quick weird tale.

A woman I work with has started "online dating".
First she met this guy and they were exchanging texts and she would come back to my work area and have me read them.
She was gushing and giggling as I read what this guy had written to her.
My first response was to say - "Puke" but instead I just said -
"Ah huh, ok. I'm glad you're happy but be careful"
"What?" she looked disappointed. 
So I just said, "Don't you watch Dateline? This guy kinda sounds like someone off of that show".
She protested and I told her that she can do a background check online.
She just shook her head in protest.
She text me later that she might meet him and I said if she did and he tried to take her to a room covered in plastic, to turn and run.
She didn't think that was funny
and I told her I wasn't trying to be funny.
The next day she came back and read me more texts. 
I said to her "Have you ever seen Catfish?" 

So she rented to movie and it scared her but she still wouldn't listen to me.
Finally I said to her "Listen! if you call me from the trunk of a car, I will just scream I TOLD YOU SO! and hang up."
Ultimately she somehow got his drivers license number and found that the person he said he was, didn't exist.
I refrained from telling her, "I told you so!"

Now she's meet someone else. 
He's wonderful and they have talked marriage.
They've known each other for two weeks............

Today, after working all morning and into early afternoon at the kennel
I came home and dropped into a chair. 
The dogs ran around and played as I checked my Facebook page. 
On the sidebar was this dating site.
I thought, what the hell! and clicked on it.
It asked a few very random questions.
Mostly what is most important me in a "mate"
What makes for a good relationship.
Why I'm make a good partner
and what makes me not so good.
I was brief.
Mentioning the basics I'd want in a partner - kind, compassionate, hardworking and a dry sense of humor.
The not so good stuff about me - I hate Sports and I don't cook.
Then all these photos popped up with little blurbs.
I sat there sipping my pop and clicking through the images
and like most of my Internet searches about anything....
I got off track and went to another website.
Finally I found someone that seemed to meet my requirements.
I had drifted to Petfinder.
True Story.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Just an update for now.

I'm not really back from my break,
not really.
But, I thought I'd let you know what's been going on lately.

Lots of stuff going on at work.
Stress, tension, power battles
There's been job changes for several people, not me though, thank goodness.
A friend of mine got fired.
Very upset about that.
Yeah, lots of stuff I'd rather not think about.
Because of this, I l really look forward to coming home.
My safe haven.
I've been working outside non-stop.
Last Fall I cut down all the trees and brush in my lower backyard that was more of a ravine.

I cleared that out but there was still a lot of vegetation left down there.

I decided to tackle it NOW, before it got overgrown again.
Before there might be scary things like snakes down there.
So...I started on it and I kept finding "garbage" down there.
Last Fall I had picked up a ton of it. None of it was mine.
It was odd things like old cell phones and broken liquor bottles
and baseballs and hangers and water bottles and cans and 
lots and lots of glass.

I tried to just let it all go and not hold resentment towards my neighbors.
The twin boys who are probably about 13 now had to be the ones doing this.
Anyway, I've been clearing the hill and finding more stuff and getting more MAD.

I told myself that maybe it had all just blown over into my yard by accident
until one day I found a big casserole dish and not far from it, a pile of petrified noodles.
Way too heavy to blow into my yard.
Still I said nothing but just hurled it back over into their yard.

Then the other night I was awoken by my little poodle, barking furiously.
I sat up in the dark and looked at my alarm clock - 12:15.
I looked out my bedroom window and down into the darkness.
Between my neighbors garage and my fence I saw flashlights.
I could hear voices and then laughter as the twins made shadows on the garage wall.
I sat there in amazement and watched for a moment.
Then I saw them shake out a empty garbage bag and it appeared that they were picking up trash!
Why in the middle of the night, I had no clue.
I text my sister who is always up at that hour and told her about the insanity of this
and how I had to get up at 5 to get ready for work in the morning.
I could barely see them as they picked up a small bag and shriek and drop it.
Yeah, I had the same reaction when I originally found it in my own yard before I threw it back into theirs.
Then I saw them fling a hanger down into my yard 
and I lost it.
I screamed "I"M CALLING THE COPS!"
They must have been startled to hear a voice in the night but they yelled back towards the houses -
"It's the neighbors!"
and I screamed again 
"I'm SICK of you throwing trash into my yard!"
to which they yelled back, "Well it's not ours either!"
And I yelled "The hanger? the casserole dish? the GLASS!?"
"We don't even eat casserole!" they yelled but I saw their flashlights now bobbing down into the pitch blackness towards the bottom of my yard.
Suddenly I remembered my phone!
I ran downstairs and came back up and started to take a video of them.
(Oh! I got a new phone! I went crazy and splurged and got an iPhone! I'm on the Framily plan with a few people and I will seriously have to brown bag it every day from now on but OMG! I'm addicted! I'm in love with Instagram
and I like lurking and reading everyones blogs while I follow dogs around the yard.) anyway...
They were down in my yard for a few minutes and then I watched as they came back up and went inside their house.
I texted my sister and she said to call the cops but I told her that it was very late and that I had to be up in 4 hours and besides,
my dogs when go crazy and start barking insanely if cops came to the door.
So, that was that.

I got up in the morning, a Saturday and went to work and got home about 1:00.
I changed clothes and went down the hill to work on it and
there was STILL trash.
So I took some photos.
A little bit later I was talking to my niece Lily and told her what happened and she was furious.
She said she'd be over later and was going to tell them off.
I laughed and said "Whatever".
I worked for several more hours and when Lily showed up, she handed me her little dog and said she'd be right back.
Off she went, around the front yard and then I could hear her knocking on the neighbors back door.
The grandma who owns the home answered.
Now she's not a sweet little pushover grandma.
She can be one tough cookie so I was kinda worried for Lily.
But Lily told her that it had come to her attention that "The boys are throwing trash into my Aunt Cindi's yard".
She said she was very concerned, especially about the glass.
Lily came back and told me that grandma had called the boys into the room and they had denied it.
That's when Lily told them that one of the pieces of trash had their mothers name written on the top of it

AND that I had them on video.
The boys, she said kept denying it and even blurted out "She was yelling at us and we don't even eat casserole!"
Lily thought that the grandma was nice and apologetic but Lily didn't trust the boys.
I was so upset over the whole thing that I seriously started looking for houses on-line.

Now that I've settled down I have a new resolve not to let these brats drive me from my home.
I'm in a good neighborhood and I like my other neighbor
and I can afford THIS house and I can NOT afford what I found on-line.
Anyway. 
Other stuff has happened too but that's enough for now,
just the tale of my yard.
Here's an updated photo of how much I have it cleared.

I also seeded the front yard and transplanted a zillion hostas with more to go.
Today at work I started a list of what else needs to be done JUST on the outside.
The things that need to be completed before I will be happy.
Here's my list.

I'm sure I forgot something.
and of course.... I still have so many other plans for inside and
other things.
So there's a long drawn out update!
......I'll be lurking on my phone!
xoxo