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!

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 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.

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….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.

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.

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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!

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.

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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…..

“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

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This morning, LONG before the sun came up, a visitor bird was CHIRPING, non-stop! I can’t tell you what kind of bird it was; his call is one that I’m not used to hearing. It’s probably a bird that stopped in our grove for some rest on his flight North.
I was aware of his call around 4:30 this morning. (Remember….I went to bed about three hours earlier.) The bird had to be making quite a racket because our windows were closed. I tried my best to ignore him and go back to sleep like a good girl, but he chirped and CHIRPED and CHIRPED!
I finally pulled a pillow over my head to block the sound. At that point, I didn’t care if I overslept.
I love the birds. We spend a lot of time watching them. We put out feed year round to encourage them to visit. But, I think I need to hand out a manual for acceptable birdy behavior. No noise before 6:30. 7:00 would be even better. Just twitter quietly among yourselves until I’m ready to face the day, otherwise, GO VISIT THE NEIGHBORS!