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dooley's Blog
A strange library day!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 3:52 am Today, I moved every fiction and mystery book in the Large Print section of the library. That's 4 and 1/2 sixteen foot rows. Each row is seven shelves high. That's 16 times seven times 4 and 1/2. I wonder how many books that was. I'm tired I think, I was trying to figure out how many books by averaging the size of each book at one inch but it doesn't caculate. Anyway, I moved some of them twice because when I got to the end I still had some books to move so I had to go back and rearrange the beginning to fit the others at the end. But, it is all done. Now, it will just take a bit of tweaking here and there as books are returned and checked out to make sure they all fit. The next chore will be to move some shelves up or down to make the music CD,s fit their shelves. Then, the fiction section needs moved toward the end of the alphabet section because until they were finished changing the book labels they weren't certain how much space they needed so the books are packed together at the beginning of the alphabet and there is a lot of room at the end of the alphabet. This is all to make more efficient use of space until the new library is built. Ground breaking is in April and finishing is the next April and occupancy is in June of 2008. But, no amount of moving books around is going to make more books fit on the same amount of shelves. They did delete old and worn books and books that haven't been checked out for at least two years. That did more than anything. But now for awhile it will be easier to shelve books. I had my six-month employment evaluation today and got good marks all around. So, I am relieved that is done. They gave me the paperwork in October and just got to do it today. It has to be done by Tuesday. It was a very slow day bookwise today. That is why I had time to move every book in the library and the one in the next town. Well, it seemed like it. The bookdrop was almost empty. No one was coming to bring books back. No one was coming to check books out. Everyone wandered around looking for things to keep them busy. Desks got cleared, shelves got neatened. Books got moved. It was a strange library day. Everyone is predicting snow in the high country and rain here but the weather service that I have on my desk top is still saying daytime temps in upper forties and low fifties. That sounds like rain except it will go down to 30's at night or 20 or 10 or below zero depending on who is doing the talking. It is windy and cloudy and it's in 40's now so what the weather will be tomorrrow is anyones guess. We will have some but I don't know what it will be. I just hope the snow stays in the high country. I didn't do anything Christmasy today. I guess tomorrow morning I will clean off the table so my neighbors will have a space to eat their cookies and drink their tea. Must be getting close to bed time. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 572 times
Tea and cookies
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 5:42 am Well, I invited some neighbors for tea and cookies on Sunday afternoon. Then, I decided I'd better make some cookies. Yesterday, I made coconut butterballs, Russian teacakes and I made a refrigerator cookie called Ginger Almond Cookies. I almost didn't make it because it called for 4 teaspoons of ground ginger, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and l tablespoon of ground cloves. Sounded kind of spicy to me. But, they aren't too bad. I was going to bake them when I got home last night but I was tired. I baked them before supper tonight. Today was my day off. We were going Christmas shopping and I guess we did. We went to yard sales and an estate sale. We did buy Dan something and I bought some books for DR and Dan at a yard sale. I did buy something else for Dan but I guess I'd better not put that here as he reads blogs sometimes. We had addresses for all of these sales but we don't know our way around Prescott Valley so the addresses didn't help much. I just drove down a main street until I saw a yard sale sign and I turned. Then, when I was trying to find my way back to the main street we blundered into one of the ones we had an address for. That's where I bought the books. Then, we stopped at another one and I headed back to the main street and went that way for awhile and found another one. Then, having not found the estate sale we headed for Big Five to look at jackets for DR. When we turned onto the street for Big Five there was the sign for the estate sale so we went there. DR bought a lot of train magazines there. I just bought a lot of small things and a stocking cap for myself for when it starts to snow. The weather forecast for tomorrow is clouds moving in and windy conditions. Then, on Sunday, rain and only in the 40's. Snow in the high country. More snow on Monday and Tuesday. I hope they mean the rim country and not us, but it said it could get down to 3,000 ft and we are at 4,200 to 4,500. I guess that might mean us. I think I may have to drive to work or home in the snow this week. Then, it will start to warm up again and be in the upper 50's next week. Yuck!! Anyway, we went to WalMart to pick up prescriptions and looked at jackets there and he found one he liked that was on sale. It's not a heavy jacket but he wasn't looking for something heavy. He likes to wear layers. We went to Costco and bought a pizza for supper. We had a polish sausage and a coke. Then, we came home because we wanted to go to the post office before it closed the windows at 4 PM. I came home and baked those ginger almond cookies and made the pizza for supper and went and took a shower. Then, I made some more zucchini coconut bars. I still have to put powdered sugar on them. Maybe in the morning before I go to work. Tomorrow after work, I want to make some shortbread cookies and some lemon bars. I was going to make rolled and cutout sugar cookies but they take longer and I'm not sure I want to do it tomorrow night. I need to stop and get some fruitcake mix so I can make stollen for Christmas morning. I want to get some almond filling so I can try the kringle. I might be able to do that on Monday morning. The package of dates that I thought I had turned out to be figs so I need to find a recipe for fig bars now. And I still don't have my Christmas shopping done. We did get the package mailed to grandma this week and the woman in the post office said it would take two or three days, like I believe that at this time of the year. I may still send her a package that she can enjoy for New Year's. I think that maybe I should go to bed now. I have to get up early. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 579 times
Days off!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:31 am Days off sure go faster than work days, even when you work 3 or 3 and 1/2 hours a day. Friday, I had a day off so I decided since I had those new books to read I should make that a priority. I finished one and decided not to read one and half finished another. One is not started yet. Then, I worked on Saturday. Saturday was a very slow day. People were Christmas shopping or making cookies or something besides reading. I got all the books shelves, helped a new volunteer understand the system and rearranged the music cd's. I had lunch in there somewhere, too. The new volunteer is sharp. She picked up the routine very quickly and needed little help after that. She works five days a week in a credit union and still decided to volunteer at the library 4 hours on Saturday. A good person. DR and I stopped on the way home for dinner. He had a busy day at the flea market. He bought me an early Christmas present but I can't tell anyone what it is before Christmas because then it wouldn't be a surprise. He knows what I am getting him because I mailed ordered them. Don't ask me to explain that either. Today, I was going to get a lot of things done. Mainly I wanted to get the dining room table cleaned off. It seems that every where we have ever lived there has been a place that collected clutter. In this house it is the dining room table. I'm not sure why unless it is the least used space in the house. I mean it's bigger than the two of us need so there is a lot of space on the other end and pretty soon it looks like it might reach the ceiling and topple over. Then, I have to sort through the clutter and throw away the unwanted portion. I did that this morning. Now, there is stuff for Grandma's Christmas package which I will put in the box that I got from the post office. There are some Christmas cards that I have got to finish. The kleenix box is there. I guess it can stay. I emptied out the flowers from Thanksgiving. They didn't smell so good anymore and were all droopy. Our friends brought them for Thanksgiving and they graced the table for a few more days. I moved the dishes that DR bought me at a yard sale last week. He bought them because of the design on them. The design is, you guessed?, Teddy Bears. I washed them and put them away. Well, we used some for dinner. We had bean soup. That's probably what we will have tomorrow night too. I did make chocolate-cherry biscotti. I wanted to make some other cookies but didn't quite get to that. I did more Christmas cards. They are almost finished now. Of course, I spent a "little" time on Gardenstew and the new PetFighter forum. Not too much though. DR brought the Christmas tree from the shed and set it up. We use an artifical one now. I thought about decorating it but since the ornaments are still in the shed decided to wait until morning. It is easier to do it during the day when you can see what you are doing. Oh, DR brought me a new bear yesterday. Well, it's new to me. It's sort of large. It sets on the floor by the tree now. I guess it will settle in somewhere. I hope it doesn't decide on my chair. Since DR bought it, it could settle into his chair. It is big enough for a chair. He bought it because he liked it's face. The man didn't want too much for it either. I mostly read the Sunday papers. We get two of them. Well, we go to the store, they are not delivered. We get the one from Prescott and the one from Phoenix. At this time of the year they are mostly ads. There are some store ads that go automatically into the trash can. Some stores that have large advertising sections and when you go to the store they only had one or two so they are all sold and there are no rainchecks. That's not exactly legal, but they don't seem to worry about it. One is a large chain so they probably would pay the fine and expect that you will buy something else as long as you are there. I quit shopping in those stores a long time ago. You can usually find the same thing at another store for the same price. Have you ever noticed that stores usually have the same things on sale at the same time? I laugh at Thanksgiving because each store advertises that they have the lowest price and the prices are exactly the same as all the other stores. I'd call that price fixing myself. Oh, well I guess I've rambled along here and gotten completely off the subject so I'll quit for today. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 543 times
Time is flying
Category: Holidays | Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:52 pm Time is flying and it seems that I'm at a standstill. The problem is there is too many things to do and I am not good at making decisions. It seems that many I am not good at making choices either. I only have the llittle bear tree up. The big tree is still in the shed. You can't put presents under the little bear tree. But, I don't have any presents to put under the tree. DR has one. I don't know what is in it though. He wouldn't tell me. The only thing I have is the gift cards going to Wisconsin. I have to get Grandma's boxes in the mail soon. They are going to New York. She says she doesn't have much room for things so I'm a little stumped for what to send. I have goodies and I want to send her some cookies. (Not made yet). I did send her some little snowflakes that I thought she could pin to her curtains. I am sending her a snowflake pin soon. She likes to wear pins on her blouses or tops. I don't know how many survived her move to the nursing home. Since they are small that seemed a good choice. I am looking for a suitable lap robe and I may just have to wait until after Christmas and make something. We have the Santa and reindeer up, finally. DR bought it at a yard sale and it turned out too big for our little front yard. So, where to put it. It is now hanging from the front of our house. It looks nice when it's lighted up. Not that we see much of it since we work when it is lighted up. But, there are three evenings when we are home to see it. I guess we put it there for others to see so that's good. Our neighbor says it looks great. He has so many lights up that you can't see his house. He says he's going to steal my garland and bows but I don't know where he would put them. Sometimes simple is better. I was going to put a little tree that is an extra one in the front yard where the pond tub is covered over for the winter. But, we don't really need another Christmas tree. I'm thinking I may wait until after Christmas and put it out with fruit and vegetables and peanut butter pine cones. The birds would get to enjoy it. The bushes and trees in Frank's(not our gnome) yard is full of birds. He feeds them all year long. He doesn't have a heated bird bath for water so every evening when the birds go to bed he empties the birdbath and everymorning he puts new water out. He gets up with the birds so they don't have to wait for the water that is not frozen or too cold. I brought another cookie book home from the library last night. I already had a list made and yesterday I made zucchini coconut bars which were not on the list because I brought a cookie book home from the library. But, dr liked the zucchini bars. I had a lot of the grated zucchini in the freezer. I made the fruit and nut cookies. I made a raisin cake, very spicy. It calls for a glaze but I only sprinkled a cinnamon sugar mix over it. Much better, not TOO sweet. Last night on the way to work we stopped at the grocery store. I bought cream cheese, eggs and sour cream. I have lots of cookie making stuff. I hope the neighbors like the cookies. But, I have not had any complaints yet. This year they may not get too many if I don't decide what I'm going to do today. And, as if there weren't enough things to do, I have four books home that need to be read as soon as possible since they are new books and Dan lets me read them first. One is on diabetes. It's a good book to read at this time of year as it reminds me to watch my diet. There is a Christmas breakfast at work on the 22nd. It's my day off so I guess I will go and then finish my shopping (or start my shopping) after. I am going to make Kringle. Now, I've never made a Kringle but it doesn't look too hard. It's a Danish that is very popular in Wisconsin. We always bought them. Racine, Wisconsin is the Kringle capital in the United States. Danish immigrants started bakeries there in the 1800's. I could just order one, but I just have to give it a try. So this weekend dr and I will sample it to see how it goes. I ask Andy to find me a recipe. He says since they are always so easy to find in Wisconsin he hasn't tried to make one. I forgot to ask him how his Cranberry Salsa turned out. So, I put chicken in the slow cooker with tomato sauce and Italian spices. I think we will have spaghetti for dinner tonight. But, it's noon and I have yet to get anything done so I'd better hop to it. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 4532 times
Little Bear Tree
Category: Holidays | Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:47 am I decided that today was the day to put up some Christmas other than the wreath on the front of the house. I chose to start with the little bear tree. About 25 years ago more or less, I started collecting bears. We had a big house and a big tree. The top ornament always touched the ceiling. As a decorative touch the bears were grouped around and under it. Well, there were too many bears and not so much room. This was even before I had more than a hundred. Anyway we found this little two foot tree and set it up on a library table with the little bears grouped around it and it became the little bear tree. It still has some of the same decorations and has suffered some in it's travels but it hasn't missed a year yet. The display has grown. Last year it was on a round table with a Thomas Tank train. This year, no train. It has a house and some years, a pond with skaters. This year there is no room for the pond. Little bears from half an inch to about five inches have crowded around it. They set on benches, chairs, sleds, wagons and on the snowy surface. The larger of the small bears go on the shelf across the room where they can still see the tree. Larger bears all are grouped around the room. When the big tree goes up, some bears will be under the tree on sleds, etc. So, the bears have taken over Christmas, also. I digress, I was about to tell you about putting the little bear tree up this year. Remember my saying I was looking and not seeing a place to put a tree. Well, we made a space. BUT!!!!!! We must have moved every piece of furniture in the house. Well, not the computer desk or the refrigerator. Chance got very worried when we started carrying things out the back door. Before we could make room in the living room, we had to make room in the small bedroom and the laundry room and some things are even in the dining room waiting for a final destination. But, the little bear tree is up and lighted. There is a space for the big tree which DR is in charge of putting up. He doesn't decorate it, he just puts it up. We used to always have a live tree but when the boys all left home we found it easier to put up an artificial one. That drew strong comments when they came for Christmas but we told them there was room for a real one and ornaments to spare, have at it. No one ever went and got a live one. Tom and Andy do have live trees in their homes though. Dan has an artifical one now. So, tomorrow I will do something else. After having moved things two days in a row, maybe I will put garland and bows on the front fence. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 585 times
Today was Saturday
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:13 am Since today was Saturday I worked seven hours. I had a day off yesterday. There was a big gun show in Phoenix and we thought we would go walk around and we might see something I could buy DR for his birthday. But when we got up he said he was tired and didn't feel like walking around a gun show. So, we just went to Phoenix to do a little shopping. We started at Trader Joe's. I found a pink heather plant before we got in the front door. It smelled so good. It's pretty, too. Picture tomorrow, maybe. Then, we went to Saver's, a resale shop. That was a waste of time and we left quickly. Then, we drove clear to Dunlap and 35th Avenue to go to an Oriental Market. I wanted to buy tea and they usually have a choice. I bought lychee tea, India tea(assam), oolong tea and some called Lung ching. It was in a sealed can so I only bought it because of the strange name. No English on the can. It is a green tea, I think. The leaves are in big chunks. I haven't tried it yet. I only made a pot of the lychee tea which is fragrant and quite good. It's a black tea. The India tea comes packed in pound bags. I haven't opened it yet. I need to get a tin out of the shed to store it in. I also bought a box of Irish breakfast tea and a box of oolong tea, both teabags for when I don't have time or want a big pot of tea. Tonight I had P&G Tips. That's English and quite good. On Thursday when we went to Ross's, I bought a box of Harrowgate. It's English, too. It's a black tea. So, I now have a bigger selection of tea and will probably end up going, "eeny, meeny, miney mo" to decide what to make. I bought a few other things and then we went to a Thai buffet for lunch. Not as good as it used to be but the neighborhood has taken a slide down hill. We went to the Sunflower Organic store for polenta and I bought some wholegrain pancake mix to try. We bought fish for Christmas eve at Trader Joe's and a few other gourmet items for Christmas. No presents though. The smell in the Oriental grocery make DR feel sick so he went outside to wait for me. We got home about four and I put the pork roast that was in the refrigerator in the oven and went to do a few little things while supper was cooking. Today, was a light day bookwise at the library. The drop boxes were nearly empty. But, last night was the Christmas parade in Prescott Valley. A light parade. This afternoon was the parade in Prescott and tonight was the lighting of Christmas lights in Courthouse Square in Prescott. It's a really big deal and makes the news all over Arizona. We didn't go. Being a light book day I had time to move books around on the shelves. Two of the other ladies moved all the H thru K books before the library opened and I moved all the C thru G books by myself this afternoon. It's all part of a big move to rearrange things to make better use of the space. It's been a lot of work though. Another lady will move A thru B on Monday morning. She has moved her share over the last several weeks. I can make you go cross-eyed by telling you how it works so just imagine several thousand hard back and paper back books all changing spaces. The non-fiction books did not change spaces but I am forever moving them about trying to make more room. It will be June 2008 before the new library is ready to occupy so space is very much a concern until that time. My one elbow hurts tonight and sometimes when I've moved a lot of books my fingers cramp at night. I think tomorrow we will stay home and see about doing something Christmasy. Of course, that will entail moving things around a bit. Well, okay, it will entail moving things around a lot. I'm thinking if it is at all nice I might begin with the outside. It is supposed to rain during the week and I can always do inside if it's raining. Chance can help. She always looks so worried when we start moving things. Chance and dr have gone to bed. I didn't sleep all that well last night so I think I might be headed that way myself. As for the Christmas shopping, not much was bought in the way of presents. I did buy two sweaters for work but dr paid for them. I guess I will have to go Christmas shopping again. DR says he doesn't need anymore things to not have room for. I did order a subscription for him for Shotgun News which he likes to read. But, that wasn't a surprise. Oh, well, that's my rambling for tonight. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 538 times
Christmas shopping
Category: Holidays | Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:11 pm It is COLD here today so we may go and do a little Christmas shopping. When we lived in Wisconsin and the boys were small we always hired a babysitter about a week before Christmas and went to dinner and then shopping. It feels like winter here now but thankfully no snow. I'm not with Toni on the snow. It's pretty on the top of the mountain but that's where I like it or on Christmas cards. Last week I went and bought gift cards at the book store for the Wisconsin crew. I was going to do the same for the California ones but they may be coming to Arizona at the end of the month so I may just wait and take them shopping. Erin will be eleven in April and I bet she would like to go shopping with us. Tom is going to run a 24 hour race so they are coming a day early. We are going to go down to Goodyear and find a motel so they won't have to drive two hours back and forth to visit and not have much time to spend here. I applied for and got the days off that I needed. Ha, I just thought. I will only have to work one day between Christmas and New Year's. We get Monday and Tuesday off for Christmas and I will work Wednesday and then have five days off. Great!!! Though I can believe there will be a ton of books to put away when I get back. It just works that way. I'm just now getting caught up from the Thanksgiving two days off.I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies yesterday. I think I will mix some refrigerator dough for cookies in a bit and then they will be ready when I want to bake them. Chance is running around the yard barking because there is a white chicken on the street. She knows chickens are not supposed to be in the street. If it would just come into the yard she could have chicken for dinner. I made banana muffins for breakfast. She didn't have time to come in for any. I checked on my plants. They are doing okay in the exercise room. The begonia in the swan looks a little wilted but it should have come inside. It wasn't much warmer inside when we got home last night. The comforter felt good. I think this is the coldest it's been since we left Wisconsin. It's still November. I wonder what happened to the warmer than normal winter. Last night DR started the truck when he went down about ten minutes before the library closed. When we went out and the other ladies saw the truck running they said that tomorrow night they would all give DR the keys to their vehicles and he could warm them up, too. Dr said, "Yeah, fat chance!" The wind had stopped for the most part so the drive home was easier. The City of Lights display is open so one night after we get off from work we will go and drive through it. There are all sorts of lighted scenes and tunnels of lights that you can drive through. It's free and stays open from 6pm to midnight. We got the first Christmas card today, from my sister. We usually get the first card from her daughter. But her daughter has three girls and now works as a pharmacy tech so doesn't have the time she used to have to do them. I used to do mine on Thanksgiving weekend. I have addresses on them but that's about it. I just have to put a note or letter in each one. My dad always said, if you can't find the time to write something in them you might as well not send them. I guess it stuck so all of them get a note or letter. Maybe I'd better go start on that instead of rambling on here for pages. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 555 times
Beginning
Category: Holidays | Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:20 pm Thanksgiving is over and it's on to Christmas. Not much time to get it all done. I sit and look around and can't seem to think what to do. There is no place for a tree. DR says it doesn't have to go in front of the window. I guess he's right. Then, there is the little bear tree. I know where I had it last year but the space has magically filled up with something else. We cleaned out the shed yesterday to find all the Christmas stuff. I've thought about just emptying the living room into the shed and starting over but there is too much in the living room. A good half of those bears living in our house. There was an ad in the paper yesterday. Someone else must have the same problem. It said they had 200 bears to sell. Part of a collection, never played with. DR wanted to know if I wanted to call about it. NO, NO, NO!!!! I can't even figure out what to do with the ones that I have and everytime I go to the thrift shop I buy another one. Don't get me wrong. I love bears and there is always one who really looks like it needs a home. There is always room for just one more, and one more and one more and one more and one more......Pretty soon we will have to move out to the shed. I brought out the garland and lights for the front fence. I probably won't get it up today but soon. I guess I'm getting to be like DR. Wait for the coldest day of the year to work outside on a project. He has his own problem. He bought a Santa with sleigh and reindeer and doesn't know where to put it. The roof is out. No way to fasten it. That big mulberry tree hides the roof anyway. He says it's about 10 feet long. We also have a big star to put on the front of the big shed. Maybe it will stay in the big shed this year since we have a sleigh with Santa and reindeer. I have been gathering up all the Halloween and Thanksgiving and fall stuff today. I guess that is the first step anyway. I do have a place for it but the stuff seems to have multiplied so I hope it all fits. I moved my CD player because there was no longer any place to plug it in where it was located. We have downsized many times in our 45 years and things just seem to grow like Topsy and fill in the empty spaces. I marveled at the large living room when we moved here. Little did I know. Should go to the post office and then decide what to do with the rest of the day. Work 6-9 tonight. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 644 times
The day after
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:58 am Well, here it is the day after. We hadn't intended to do much of anything and I guess we didn't really do much. DR said we should go to breakfast. We went up the hill. It was more brunch than breakfast but we ate breakfast food. It wasn't very good. The restaurant was busy and I think they got careless with their cooking. My bacon was only cooked on one side. The waitress never came back until we were finished. When I told her about the bacon not being cooked she was going to go get me some more. DR told her to forget it, we were finished. The manager wasn't around so DR is going to write him a letter. We won't go back there. Being busy is not an excuse for poor food quality. We waited a good 20 minutes to be seated and we could see empty tables from where we stood. I think they didn't have enough wait staff on duty. We went to the mall. I bought gift cards from Barnes & Noble for Christmas presents. The woman wanted to give me free boxes but I told her no, I was just sending them in a padded envelope. I'm saving money buying gift cards, why would I pay extra to put them in a package that costs more. Oh, well! Not her fault. She didn't know what I was doing with them. People were very rude and pushy just about everywhere today. If they didn't want to go shopping, why didn't they stay home. A lady knocked DR's drink cup over because she wanted to fill her cup before he finished. What would it hurt to wait half a second until he finished? She glared at him like it was his fault. They put something on sale at a store and then, they put a young kid on the register and he doesn't know what he is doing and everyone is trying to talk to him at once and he doesn't know and that's all he said, "I don't know!" He couldn't even get anyone else to come to help him. He'd get on the intercom and no one would come. If I'd been him, I'd probably have run screaming down the aisle. Where was the manager or dept. head when he needed helpd?Kids don't know what to do when a lot of people gather at one time and all want to be first. We left. We didn't need anything anyway. It isn't a good start to the Season of Good Cheer. We stopped at Michael's and bought a ring to make a wreath. DR is going to make a wreath out of Rosemary for the kitchen. He bought a stem of red berries to put on for color. I think I will have a ribbon for it when we get the Christmas stuff out of the shed on Sunday. I have got to get the Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff gathered up before I think about the Christmas stuff. Why aren't these holidays spread out a little? No wonder everyone is stressed. You can't get stuff put away from one before it's too late and you are rushed getting things out for the next one. Good thing we have a few months after the new year to recuperate. Maybe that's why we have winter, to rest up for the spring and summer. We haven't had a frost yet. I was out with Chance this morning and looking around the yard. It was cloudy and cooler than I like. But as I looked around I saw a couple petunia blossems still standing up straight. The leaves were a little brownish but the flowers were a nice bright red and white. I saw some yellow and orange calendula and some yellow coreopsis and a few purple cosmos. I even saw a couple morning glories. The morning glories were not very big but they made a bright spot in a gray day. In the garden there was a tomato plant still green with a yellow flower. Some coriander was blooming and there was one squash plant with a flower. They are all still trying to do their job and making the yard and garden shine on a dull, cloudy day. It made me feel better for sure. I mean, I wasn't feeling bad but those flowers cheered me anyway. Now, the weather forecast is for low 50's during the day this week and low 30's at night so I know those flowers aren't going to last through the week. But it is nearly December and they should have gone a month or six weeks ago so if they die this week I still had flowers longer than I could have expected. Nature is wonderful. Now, if I only had time to run out and pick the seeds and pull the dead plants and rake the leaves and all the other things I need to do outside. But, if I don't get it all done it doesn't go away. It waits patiently for me to get time to do it. I think I must be rambling again. Must be bed time. I have to work 8:30-4 tomorrow and DR is going flea marketing. Dooley Last edited: Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:56 pm This blog entry has been viewed 551 times
Thanksgiving blessings!
Category: Holidays | Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:43 am Isn't is nice that with all of us busy with the holiday and family and friends that we found the time to come and wish our Gardenstew friends and family a happy holiday. True, most of us were busy throughout the day but the day doesn't seem to end until we come and check on everyone. It's sad when one has to spend a special day alone but with friend like the ones here they can still feel special. DR spent some time here showing our friend the site and all the places to visit and I am sure Al will find the time to check it out from time to time. We hadn't seen them all year and it seems like if they are less than two hours away we could manage to visit from time to time, but we all keep busy and we all have ailments that keep us home from time to time. We have made plans to see them at the end of the year when our oldest son comes to Arizona to run in a 24 hour race down by where Al and Ree live. Al will be playing music both days but we will get together for breakfast or lunch. I have both days off. Tom will be coming with someone else so won't be able to come up so we are going to go down and stay a couple of days. He is going to bring Erin and we haven't seen her in a long while. She will be eleven in April so I thought instead of sending her a Christmas gift we might take her shopping while Tom is busy running. The descendents of Sam and Myra Fleming are having a reunion in April in Phoenix. There were seven children of which I am the third. I had one brother who was the oldest. He was killed on his way home from Vietnam. I have an older sister (Wannabe) who lives in Illinois. My next youngest brother lives in Missouri and drives a semi-truck cross country several times a month. I don't think I could do it myself but he's been doing it many, many years. My next youngest sister lives in Phoenix. I don't see her as much as I'd like. Her husband had a stroke a couple of weeks ago and is now in rehab. I should have found time to call her today, but I didn't. I'll try to remedy that in the morning. The next youngest is a boy and he lives somewhere in Nevada. He has trouble with serious depression and only keeps in touch with Wannabe. We are all happy that he at least keeps in touch. He won't come to the reunion. The youngest lives in California. She is one of the organizer's of the reunion. Now, they have a web site or I should say a group e-mail through yahoo where everyone can voice their opinions. Between the seven of us there are 23 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. We live in 5 different states. But so many of the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren do not know each other and last Thanksgiving the four girls were together in Phoenix and decided we needed to try to get together so they could meet each other. There are 54 direct descendents but there are wives and stepchildren too so there are more than 70 who will try to be there. It is going to be spread over three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and more days if they want to come earlier or stay later. Andy says that's the week Ben has spring break so they will come earlier in the week. Tom hasn't said if they are coming. I think Erin has her break in March. So, even with large families it is hard to get them together. I remember when we were having reunions that of my dad's family and we were the younger generation. Now, only one of his brother's still lives and none of my mom's siblings still live. We are the older generation. When did that happen? It just crept up on us. We weren't watching close enough. I suppose it would have come anyway but it would have been nice to have had some warning. You know that means we are maybe getting older. I called to wish my dad a "Happy Birthday" when he turned 65. He said, "What's so happy about it. This is the one where you start to get old." He died when he was 73 years old. I will turn 66 in January so I guess I started to get old about a year ago. I only feel it when it take me longer to get something done than it used to do. I dig my garden and flower beds with a shovel. I used to could get it all done in one day. Now, it takes all week and my knees and back complain daily about it. Talk about being weak-kneed. Oh, well, I still don't feel 65 so maybe you only start to get old when you start to feel old. Only my knees feel old. I am still young at heart and with that, I think I will take my old knees and go to bed. We did have a great Thanksgiving day with friends and Dan and with the ones we have never met in person but still consider to be good friends. Dooley Last edited: Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:17 am This blog entry has been viewed 640 times
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