Arrrgh!!!

"Botanists say that trees need the powerful March winds to flex
their trunks and main branches, so the sap is drawn up to
nourish the budding leaves. Perhaps we need the gales of life
in the same way, though we dislike enduring them."
- Jane Truax

I really need to add a category called "Things I Heard on the Radio."

About 10 days ago I was listening to WGN, and heard Spike O'Dell announce that Chicago has 16,000 hookers.

First....I was astounded that he was talking about hookers early in the morning. WGN used to be the squeekiest clean station in the nation.

Second....I wondered how they came up with that number. What was he reading, and who made the estimate that he announced? You know they didn't go out and count these ladies one by one. Can't you see the uproar if one of them didn't get counted?? She'd sue for her rights!

Third, they got into a discussion of terms for hookers. They figured that street walkers were the lowest on the list, and call girls were the highest priced. I suppose everything else falls in place between the two.

THEN...he blythly announced that the ads in a certain local paper for "escorts" weren't all that they seemed at face value. Since he gave the name of the paper, I wonder if there has been a rush of calls...to the places, to Spike about the places, to Spike from the paper, from the places thanking or threatening Spike with law suits, etc.

It's astounding what we learn......16,000.....

About ten years ago, Dear Husband turned to me one day and said "I like what you are doing with the gardens, but I'm not going to garden any more." I was dumbfounded! I didn't have a response. I couldn't think of anything to say. (No snide comments from the peanut gallery!)

There wasn't any question of simply shutting down the gardens, so I kept on by myself with an occasional hand from DH moving a full wheelbarrow. Gradually things began to run down. There are too many gardens here for one person to care for, unless that is the only thing she does. To make matters worse, my mother would buy plants and hand them to me and ask me to make room for them in the gardens.

We were listening to the news on T.V. this evening. At the close of the national news on ABC the announcer said something cryptic about the Seattle Men's Chorus succumbing to AIDS. I thought I had missunderstood what he'd said, and asked DH to repeat it for me. It didn't make any more sense the second time around, so I went on-line to surf for information about the Seattle Men's Chorus.

Each year, I promise myself that I will gather the information for my taxes by February. Our CPA does the taxes. All I have to do is gather the information and get it to her. One day I hope to startle her by dropping the packet off on March 1st!

Unfortunately, it wasn't this year. I had everything gathered together, and finally sat down March 31st to read the instructions. The first line that caught my eye was "In order to be able to prepare your taxes in time, we need your tax planner by April 1st." Luckily, I had the information on Quick Books, and all the 1099s and W2s were in the folder. I spent an evening checking off boxes and filling in the blanks, and dropped the planner off the next morning. I wonder how many others wait til the last day? I'll have to ask her sometime.

My taxes are relatively simple. They aren't simple enough to use the EZ form, but they are not so complex that it takes weeks to do them. Still, I was astounded when the CPA called the next day with the preliminary taxes complete! She had one question, and the taxes could be sent electronically.

YAAAAHOOOOOOOO!!!! My taxes are done!

Next year, I'll have to be ready early, just to say "Thank you!" for such phenominal service!

Most families are visited by the Easter Bunny. My sister's family not only has the Easter Bunny, they are also visited by the Easter Gorilla.

....and gone back into hiding!

It was wonderful here on Saturday as we worked on the yard. The wind began to pick up in the afternoon, and it felt a bit colder, but I thought that was due to wind chill.

Sunday, I tossed the rose cones down to DH, who was standing in the doorway to the basement, thinking we didn't need them any more. Sunday, the temperature dropped to 26 overnight. I think the roses weathered the cold, but I may have been a little hasty in putting away the temporary covers.

Still, Spring must be here. I saw a gold finch at the feeder.

I thought I was reasonably well informed about the US Navy, but several things have come to my attention that have given me the chills. One of my sisters was an officer in the Navy, and my brother enlisted in the Navy. I dread to think the risk the two of them took.

This is one of those subjects that interest you once you pass the age of 45 and are no longer thinking you are immortal.

Strokes are extremely common, and if you identify what's taking place, you could save the life of the person having the stroke, or you could vastly improve the quality of their life post-stroke.

All it takes is remembering three simple questions. Here's an e-mail I received explaining what to look for:

Is It a Stroke?

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say any bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

* Ask the individual to smile.
* Ask him or her to raise both arms.
* Ask the person to speak a simple sentence.

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. After discovering that a group of nonmedical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting last February. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.

PASS IT ON...............

I know, you're thinking that I'm thinking about April showers. Wrong.

I had my car washed today, and as I was waiting, I happened to pick up and leaf through a National Geographic for 2002. One of the articles was on endangered birds, and the area in focus was New Zealand.

There were absolutely gorgeous pictures of Fjordland National Park on the South Island, with incredibly tall waterfalls spearing down through tree covered rocks. The caption said the rocks rose 6500 feet above the Tasman Sea and bore the brunt of all the storms coming in from sea.

Now, I thought that it was incredible that Ketchikan, on the Inner Passage of Alaska's Pacific coast receives over THIRTEEN FEET of precipitation a year. But this area in New Zealand gets more than TWENTY ONE FEET of precipitation, making it one of the wettest areas on Earth.

You'd have to have gills to live there!

If you're a regular reader, you may remember me saying recently that in order to appreciate the ups of your life, you have to experience the downs, too. Well, it seems that the downs my be coming my way.

Over the past few years, I've been having difficulties with my feet. I developed a plantar fasciia problem in my left foot. I was referred to a podiatrist and that was resolved. Then, I began having difficulty walking after I had been sitting. Gradually that became worse, but other than telling my new doctor that my feet hurt, I didn't pursue it. Since the pain shifted around from place to place, I felt there was no point in discussing it further with the doctor.

Stolen from Bogie, who stole it from Billy:

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says: "sarong and sandals, a ragged jacket and shirt and pants

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
a junior size yellow note pad

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Star Trek: The Next Generation

4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is:
4:00

5: Now look at the clock; what is the actual time?
3:35

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
The radio in my mother's sitting room

7: When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
I took the dog out for a "quickie" around 1:00

8: Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
Bogie's blog....where I stole this!

9: What are you wearing?
Black Jeans and a white long-sleeved t-shirt

10: Did you dream last night?
I don't remember my dreams, usually

11: When did you last laugh?
I laughed at the cat, trying to out-smart a chipmunk

12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A sailing calendar, a poster of one sunflower, a poster of a water color
of Chicago, three bookshelves, two lateral files and a hutch.

13: Seen anything weird lately?
hmmmmmmm....Dear Husband?? I don't know if he qualifies.
He's weird all the time.

14: What do you think of this quiz?
Bogie said it: Gives me something to do and post

15: What is the last film you saw?
X-Men 2

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
We have about 7 years of mortgage left.....I'd pay that off.

17: Tell me something about you that I don't know.
The Doc said I lost an inch and a half in height this year. (I think they
need to get the scale checked.)

18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Hmmmmm......probably clean up all the toxins, something having to do
with ecology.

19: Do you like to dance?
Actually, I LOVE to dance, but I'm abysmal at it. Ask Speedbump.

20: George Bush: is he a power-crazy nutcase or some one who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?
Are there any other options?

21: Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
I'm a bit past this point, and my step-children came to me already named.
But I like old fashioned names like Sarah or Rebecca or Kate, and family
names.

22: Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
My husband comes from a family where the first name is passed on to the
first boy....so I wouldn't get to choose on the first.

23: Would you ever consider living abroad?
Visit, yes. LONG visit, yes.....Stay, no.

My office window looks south over the lawn toward the road. The house sits higher than the road, and there's a raised area and then a gentle slope down the lawn. In that raised area we've planted a forsythia bush and a star magnolia.

For some reason, they have been slow to bloom this spring, despite the fact that we had a reasonably gentle winter. But today.....they are both starting to show their glory! I plan to take my trusty disposable camera out to record some of that beauty, so perhaps I'll be able to share it with you before Spring is over.

I guessed right. The patch of lovely blue bell-shaped flowers on short plants that have expanded in my grove are Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica ) . This website has pictures of squill: http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/16390/

Hopefully, I'll have pictures of my squill for you soon, so you can see it in it's natural habitat.

"...since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same."

Said by Cordelia Verkosigan to her son Mark, in "Mirror Dance," by Lois McMaster Bujold

Just a thought to ponder.

WOOOOOOOOOOAHHHHHHHH!!!

Recovering


What Type of Moron Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Essay, at StupidAngryCanajun, has posted the Moron Quiz from Quizilla. How could I pass this one up? Frankly, I'm delighted to see that I'm recovering!

The violets have started to bloom!

Part of our lot was once a horse pasture. There are trees that divide it into sections, making it almost look like it has rooms. The part that is south of the house has areas that are totally covered in violets. There's a patch of trillium that Dear Husband has been told not to mow down, a section of trout lilies that he insists on mowing, and a stretch of May apples growing among the trees on the east edge of the property. Soon we'll see naturalized phlox blooming there, too.

When I first started my gardens I left the violets because I didn't have enough plants to fill the space. Then it became a contest to fill in around them. Now, I rip them out of the gardens with abandon, because I know that we have violets all over the place! Still.....it's a special time when their deep purple, or blue or white flowers open up and cover the ground.

This should give you an idea what my week has been like. Today is Wednesday and I just got to visit the Friday Five. These are the questions for the week:

1. What do you do for a living?
I am the office for my husband's masonry corporation. I am the receptionist, the bookkeeper, the filing clerk, computer repair person, human resources specialist, the OSHA officer, legal laison, typist, and general all around dog's body.

2. What do you like most about your job?
The freedom to work around my other obligations

3. What do you like least about your job?
Incessant repetitive paperwork.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____...
Some jerk in another office who doesn't know how to do their own job has dumped their problems on me and expects an instant fix. I'm good, but I'm not perfect.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
I'd like to own a quilt shop or a book shop, or teach adults how to read. There are days I'd like to be a hired hand at a garden nursery, and I think it might be interesting to be a conference planner or a concierge at an elegant hotel.

The heat has killed off the Ice Follies Daffodils today. And the Darwin tulips are just about shot, too. It seems that each year we get a taste of summer just in time to kill off some of the spring plants.

I know that I dream, but I rarely remember dreaming. I used to sleep like the dead and took that quality of sleep for granted, but I've become a fitful sleeper in the last year or so. I'm too hot, I can't find a comfortable position, DH and the dog are snoring antiphonally, DH has stolen all the covers, or the raccoon babies are chittering to their mother over my head. Something delays sleep. So, when I finally drop off, I hope it's for the night, and that there aren't any little interruptions.

Actually, I had nightmares on Thursday night, too, but I think that was from having too much iced tea before bed. I was dreaming about being in this incredible mansion, an elegant, lovely place that didn't have any bathrooms! I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be awake at 3:00 in the morning on a regular basis.

Friday night we went to see Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on stage. Korman opened the show with a short monologue about the problems of growing older. Of course, one of those problems is needing, but not being able, to pee. In a way, I was able to empathize with him! *G*

Conway and Korman put on a good show. They work well off each other even after all these years. We were delighted to see that Conway could still crack Korman up, and we enjoyed their banter. As you would expect, their show was a little more adult oriented without the censors, but it was clean by the standards of most performers today. They closed with "The Dentist Chair" routine that some of you may remember.

I slept through the night last night. I wonder if I might make it a streak of two tonight!?

I was reading through the Sunday Chicago Tribune and came a cross an article on a website to help you determine your dog's age. For years we have been using the seven years to one human year as a rule of thumb, but this website feels there are a variety of things which need to be taken into account when trying to determine your dog's age.

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in
order.
- John Burroughs

I'd like to be out working in my gardens now, but it's a cool, gray day under threatening skies. And, too, there is still work to be done in the office.

There are times when I drag my feet about my gardening chores. Usually that tends to happen when we are in the high heat of summer and the mosquitoes are out in force. But usually, after a good session playing in the dirt, I'm revigorated. The pleasure of gardens that are once again neat, and of a job well done always soothes my soul, and it's worth the achy muscles.

My father visited his fruit trees and vegetable garden each evening during the growing season. I thought it odd that he wanted to see them each day, until I became a gardener, too. Now I understand that he was seeking to put away the difficulties of the day and bring peace to his mind. Most likely, he was also giving thanks for the joy of having a garden.

Some of you lead such fast paced lives that you don't have the time to garden. I've been there, done that. When you find that pace to difficult to maintain, or when it fails to keep your interest, think about gardening. There's everything to be gained: the delight of growing your own food, or the pleasure of creating a beautiful landscape that reflects your personality.

For me, summer is wasted unless I have the chance to eat a tomato warm off the vines in my own garden. Nothing tastes as good as homegrown tomatoes!
And color has a huge influence on my life. This year I plan to plant verbena along the walks and paint the landscape with a beautiful hue of purple. If scent is important to you, walk through my herb garden, brushing the plants with your finger tips. Inhale. I not only get to perfume the outdoors, I can bring the scent into my home.

Gardens soothe the soul, delight the eye, and bring order to our lives. Go plant some seeds, and if you have children, teach them how to plant seeds. You'll both be better for it.

Tuesday evening my niece and her boys joined us for dinner. We had tacos until we burst, and then played several hands of UNO, each of us hoping to have the chance to win.

The kids both had homework, so we cut the game short after I had lost about four hands. As they put on their shoes in the foyer, the storm sirens started up. I herded everyone into the bedroom hallway, and we closed all the doors leading into the hall. I can't remember the sirens ever going off before. We tried to ease the youngest one's fears while we waited. Dear Husband roamed about watching out the windows and trying to find a weather report to tell us what was going on.

Time Magazine was reporting on C-sections in the April 19, 2004 issue. They titled the article "Too Posh To Push" because it seems that wealthy women are choosing Caesarean sections over natural birth.

In Brazil, among the wealthy, the joke is that the only way you are likely to have a natural birth is if your doctor is stuck in traffic. A whopping 90% of the wealthy women in Brazil opt for a C-section!

The World Health Organization recommends that 15% of the births worldwide, and less than 9.5% of the births in the wealthy, Westernized nations should be Caesarean deliveries. In England, 22% of the babies are born by C-section, and in Italy the rate has jumped to 33%.

In the U.S. when they began keeping statistics in 1975, the rate of C-sections was 10.4%. Since then fully one quarter of the births are by C-section. Of the Caesareans performed last year, 22% were by patient choice.

Why? Convenience. Women can schedule when they deliver. Doctors don't have to miss their golf days. Some women choose them to avoid labor pain, but I suspect they are likely to have more pain recouperating from a C-section.

In Western medicine, C-sections have become a safe surgery, or malpractice would have kept this rate from rising, but there are still risks. Some doctors follow the "Do no Harm" rule and only perform a Caesarean when it's medically necessary, but you can bet that women like Kate Hudson and Elizabeth Hurley, and Madonna, and Kelly Ripa won't be going to them.

What absolutely astounds me is that these women have opted to wear a scar for life rather than be inconvenienced. Even more, I can't believe that they choose to risk their child's life with an unnecessary procedure.

Personally, I don't think that satisfying one's personal whim at the risk of your children's health is an acceptable choice.

If you have been a reader here for any length of time, you'll know that one of my links is to Bogie's blog. I'm not sure where I found her blog, perhaps at Da Goddess, but I became a faithful reader soon after I started blogging. I noticed that she had a lot of comments from a reader named "CopCar," and then it became obvious that CopCar was related to Bogie. Eventually, I twigged to the fact that she is Bogie's mother.

Thank you T! I didn't realize how much I would like blogging. I also didn't realize how addictive it would become, and how much work it can be!

A year ago today I became a blogger. As I started, I hoped that I would have something to say each day, but I rapidly discovered that my style is to store up ideas for a few days and then type like crazy!

There was a news story at the time that made me decide to blog. A young woman, Andrea Prosse, who was an Air Force cadet was sanctioned (unfairly, it seems) by her peers, eight days prior to graduation. She was ejected from the Academy with no degree to show for four years of work, all on the say-so of a fellow student who wanted to get even, when she rejected his advances. The Chicago Tribune carried the story, and I was incensed about the lack of ethics within our military academies. I still am. I believe that if you wish to be an officer, you need to be firmly grounded in ethical behavior, or you can't ask men to follow your lead.

I browsed today, to see what, if anything, might have been reported on this story, and I'm disappointed to tell you that the only site I found mentioning her by name was my own blog entry (Air Force Woes, May, 2004.) It seems the entire affair was swept under the rug. I suspect the men who were allowed to graduate after having run this female cadet off, are congratulating themselves on a job well done.

This was one of the more serious subjects I addressed this year. Generally, I'm likely to comment on my life, gardening, quilting, recipes, books or quirky things that catch my ear or eye. Moveable Type tells me that I have 466 pages of entries and 1844 comments. My thanks go out to the school kids who were sitting in the LRC rather than disecting worms, who visited the entry called Ewwwwwww....WORMS! for raising my comment stats. Site meter has been tracking my visitors since mid July, 2003, but since at least a quarter of those visits have to be mine, I won't share that number.

There's been an interesting benefit to blogging. It seems that it's infinitely cheaper than visiting a shrink! I can comment about my woes and rid myself of them in the writing, or I can read the blogs of others and see that I'm not so darned crazy after all!

The best thing about blogging, though, has been all the people I've met through the blogs, and the friends I've made. I'm delighted that I can read blogs from the entire English speaking world, and I frequently share them with my family. It's become an addiction; one that I hope lasts for years.

Thanks for sharing this year with me!

I'm blogging this morning, it the hope that I can get some entries made before I have to charge into my life. I'm enjoying a morning where I don't have any appointments, don't have to rush out to do errands, and don't have to take my mother somewhere. This is rare, so of course I'm spending the free time blogging! *G*

While I was in the shower, I was contemplating the fact that I want to assume a simpler life. It seems to me that I am failing, based on the list of THINGS that fill my life. For instance....the number of THINGS I come in contact with from the time I turn on the shower to the point where I am ready to get dressed. Have you ever though about how many products you use in that time span?

Here's my list of things I use on a morning when I am not expecting to have to see people other than my immediate family:

When you get a new appliance or piece of electronic equipment, do you sit down and read the owner's manual? Do you try out all the new features so that you are fully conversant with the equipment and ready for every eventuality?

I bet most of you are saying to yourselves "HELL, NO!"

I tend to do some reading when new equipment comes into the house, if only to solve some of the glitches that come my way. I am the first person who gets hit with problems because I am the one who is around the equipment all day long. Of course, I am also NOT the one who is mechanically minded. So a little preparation on my part is wise. At the very least, I have memorized the phone number where I can reach Dear Husband, and I have made note of all the serial numbers and support phone numbers for said equipment.

Yep, we went and did it. We made Dell happy! We bought a new personal computer. We mulled over it for weeks. The original plan was that we would get the computer as our gift to each other for Christmas. DH was pleased because he didn't have to worry about what to get me and he was FINALLY going to be able to compute when he pleased rather than the few piddly minutes I allow him. I was pleased because I would be getting a computer that could handle all my surfing, that was minus AOL and plus a cable modem.

Well, the computer came yesterday. YES!!!

Normally I like my weather a little on the cooler side. But this is ridiculous! It's an absolutely gorgeous Spring day. The sun is beautiful, and has been all day long. There's almost no breeze. Everything is lushly green after last week's rain.

The problem is, it's only 47 degrees outside!

My winter hardy perennials are all doing well. They don't seem to mind the cold. But it's clear we won't be rushing planting season with weather like this.

Tomorrow at this time it should be 75 degrees and windy. Jumps like that are hard on the plants, and hard on me. Whatever happened to those wonderful Springs I remember where the weather GRADUALLY warmed up?

Today I'm wearing a fairly heavy ribbed turtleneck top. Tomorrow I'll be looking for short sleeves, but most mornings it's a crap shoot as to what to wear and I end up changing clothes partway through the day. I'm ready for more even temps!

Okay, Billy has given me good advice. He says to install a firewall BEFORE we hook up to the Internet. So that brings me to several questions.

I'm using Norton Antivirus 2004. Can anyone suggest a firewall that is compatible with that?

If I download a firewall on my present computer, can I copy the software to a CD and then install it on the new computer before we hook up to the cable modem?

I'm going to look into Mozilla as a browser for the new computer. Does Mozilla come with a firewall? I know...I know....I can go look this one up. I was just hoping someone would save me the time. *G*

Is there any other advice I need from you more experienced computer people before we go LIVE!?

Billy.....I'm ADDICTED!

The new computer has a game called "Spider Solitare." You know, I just hate it when we get a new computer. Each time they send more games. Each time I spend an inordinate amount of time playing games on the new computer, until I manage to get it out of my system.

My niece was here last night, and she saw the new computer. I blushed and said I was playing games, and her eyes lit up. "Spider Solitare, right??" She already knew about it. She has a new computer, too. "Wait until you start playing with more than one suit." That sent a shudder through me.

This all reminds me of an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation. Do you remember the "Parisi Squares"? I figure the writers of that episode must have seen the office workers sitting around playing games, and saw how insidious it was.

If you don't see me for the next month or so, I'll just be over here playing Spider Solitare....