Memorial Day Weekend Vacation – The First Couple Days

As with most red-eye flights, sleep was fleeting for me.  I might have gotten 3 hours, and that’s a big might.  Thanks to all the storms battering the Midwest, the pilot’s efforts to scoot around the majority of the turbulence still resulted in me being jolted awake shortly after falling asleep…every time.

There was very good news during my pit-stop at Dulles…the first of many!

After a short flight, my friend Ursula picked me up at the airport in Hartford, we pit stopped at my Dad’s house then headed up to Vermont to spend the night with our friend Joan and her husband Earl.  I’d been to Joan’s other Vermont house but not this new one.  This 198 year old farmhouse is spectacular!  It sits on 33 acres, has a babbling brook, gardens, fruit trees, woods, fields and an amazing interior.  Not to mention awesome owners.

After touring the grounds and chatting, I took off with my camera for a bit and took some pictures.

Mid-afternoon found we ladies relaxing on the porch with a bottle of wine.  Needless to say it didn’t take long before my eyes were refusing to stay open.  A short nap later and the four of us were sitting around the table enjoying an awesome salmon dinner and more wine.

The nap was just enough to give me a second wind, one that found me wide awake reading in bed until midnight.  When I shut off the overhead light a light show of another kind flashed through the window.  I walked across the room, moved the lace curtain aside and looked out the window.

The sleep Gods were lining up against me.  First it was the airplane and now?  A thunderstorm.  I hate thunderstorms even when I’m in my own home, never mind when I’m in someone else’s.

I closed the window then picked my way back to bed where I watched out the window as the storm approached.  The thunder wasn’t loud but the lightning combined with all the tree branches made for a very spooky light show – a perfect horror movie kind of light show.  When the storm was overhead the thunder was mild compared to how it can be, but the noise from the wind-rattled old window more than made up for the lack of earth-shaking booms.

The storm blew through quickly which allowed me to sleep soundly until 7:30AM-ish.  I trucked downstairs where the four of us enjoyed breakfast on the porch while looking out over beautiful raindrop soaked gardens sparkling in the morning sun.

Ursula and I left late morning and I was hanging with my Dad shortly after noon.  I had a sandwich for lunch then Dad and I headed out on a bunch of errands before I tackled some of the chores on the to-do list that had been made for me:

awnings were lowered,

lightbulbs replaced, kielbasas purchased, one kielbasa cooked.

Dad and I went to dinner with his cardiologist/friend Joan and once back home, the cooked kielbasa was sliced, placed into baggies 5 slices at a time, then put in the freezer for future nibbling by Dad.

Saturday morning we headed up to Bernie’s Dining Depot for breakfast then on the way home filled up the Blazer and picked up a birthday card for Dad to give to his granddaughter.  He filled it out, added a check then placed the envelope in the mailbox before we headed north to my cousin’s house.

Dad and I spent an enjoyable afternoon hanging with family and catching up on all the news.  We headed home in the early evening.  After making sure Dad was all set, I walked down the street and spent a couple of hours visiting with an elderly neighbor who was a fifth grade teacher at the neighborhood elementary school I attended.  Fortunately for both of us, I didn’t have her as a teacher and she didn’t have me as a student.  I’m very creative and she was more of a black & white kind of teacher.  I’m not sure if either of us would have survived a year together.

Just think…these were nearly the quietest two days of my trip!

I’ve Been Rebellious

I don’t know what’s been up with me lately, but since returning from my vacation I’ve been very rebellious.  If a sentence started with “I have to” or “I should”, I’ve run screaming to the safety and comfort of the “I want to” sentences.

There have been three exceptions — I have to go to work, I  have to pay bills and I have to do laundry.  Other than that?  It’s been all about I want to…

Unfortunately, blogging started with the words of avoidance… 

The really sad thing is that I wrote my vacation blog posts while winging my way back to CA from MA…all they need is the pictures.  But there is the crux of that problem.  I have to sort through and label all the pictures so I can insert them into the posts.

While I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my playtime with the I want to list, it has left me very tired.  Over the past couple weeks I have spent more hours than I care to count playing in the backyard.  You know…it’s that part of my property that has been severely ignored while I focused my attention on the front yard.  This has further heightened my avoidance of the “I have to” sentences because I’m just too tired.

Fortunately my blogging rebellion is short-lived.  Beginning tomorrow the balance of my vacation posts will appear followed by one about all my backyard fun.

And this switch to some I have to items has absolutely nothing to do with the Avoidance Gods getting even with me this morning.  Nope, nothing at all to do with a finger full of spikes/thorns from my morning weeding.  Unfortunately, weeds here in my area of Southern California have the same protection that cacti do…and this time I didn’t see them before they attached themselves to my finger.

There are larger forces at work, and right now they’re telling me to get out of my rebellious stage…and I’m listening!!!

Why My Fingers Have Been Silent

It’s been a crazy couple weeks for me during which something had to be shelved for a bit…and that was my blog.  It’s not that you readers aren’t important to me, but I was very busy with pre-vacation plans and then vacation, and I’m not one who likes to broadcast on the internet that I’m going to be out-of-town.  You never know when someone with little to do will decide to follow an insignificant person like me and clean out my house while I’m gone.

I flew to New England for a 6-day visit with family and friends and had an awesome time!  I wrote one blog post while waiting for my second outbound flight.  Tonight I’ll edit it then post it tomorrow.  It was definitely an interesting way to start the vacation 

During the 5-1/2 hour return flight from east coast to west I wrote more posts telling you all about my vacation.  I have to edit those and add the pix, so those will be posting over the next few days.  Though my Netbook is small, I love the battery life!  I used it the entire flight and there was still some umph in the battery.

I had hoped to upload my first vacation post last night but I spent my post-work hours on the internet, Facebook and Twitter as I soaked up all the info I could about the tornadoes that tore through MA on Wednesday.  They ripped down the streets that I had been traveling on during the previous 6 days in Springfield, Monson and Hampden.

My family is all safe and damage free, ditto for my friends.  Except two friends, I haven’t heard from them yet.  They were my neighbors when I lived in Springfield.  The neighborhood is now inaccessible as the main street that the neighborhood is off, about a mile in length, is closed to traffic.  The high school a block east of the neighborhood, Cathedral High School, sustained heavy damage.  The houses in the neighborhood are shaded by towering oak trees, 60′ or so in height, and since that area appears to have taken a pretty hard hit, if not a direct one, well, you can understand why this blog was shoved aside last night while I scoured the internet for all the info it would cough up.

Since the local TV stations are not airing footage from that area, other than the school, I’m pretty sure that there may be damage but none of the significant kind (unless your house was the damaged one of course).  The electricity and phone lines are probably out as well so my friends may not even be aware I called and left a message – the “machine” that picked up was not a personal one but rather the one that comes with phone service like Verizon, so even if the lines are down my message was recorded.

Vacation posts will start popping up tomorrow and this weekend or early next week a meme post will appear!!!  My blogging friend Terri tagged me in her meme so now it’s my turn to jump into the fray.  I’ve never participated in a meme but as the saying goes, there’s not time like the present.  Or, in my case, the near future!

Author’s note:  I heard from my former neighbor.  The neighborhood took a direct hit.  He, his wife, his cat and their house are fine (if you don’t count 1/2 of a tree from my backyard falling into their back bedroom!). My old house is fine too.  Lots of snapped trees/telephone poles, yards filled with debris, missing roofs/attics, detached garages relocated and houses marked with X’s as uninhabitable because they were blown off their foundations.

How I Spent Mother’s Day

As wonderful as Mother’s Day is in theory, there is a group of people for whom it can sometimes be a painful reminder of a loving person no longer in one’s life.  

I belong to that group.

Within that group there is a subset of individuals who do not have children, and who therefore do not spend time honoring their significant other or being the center of attention.

I belong to that group too.

*sigh*

My Mom passed away on November 14, 2003.  Some years Mother’s Day really bothers me and other years it doesn’t.  This year started out to be overwhelming but by the middle of last week things were looking up.  I tuned out as many electronics as possible in order to avoid being slammed with sale ads, AKA painful reminders, and that seemed to swing the pendulum in the positive direction.

Sunday morning I was up before the sun, puttered until it was time for my weekly sister chat, then headed out to Lowe’s to pick up some plants for the front yard.  Once back home I fortified myself with a couple fresh glazed donuts then headed outdoors to putter in the front yard.  I love gardening, as did my Mom, so what better way to spend my day then thinking of her while doing what we both love?

The forecast was for clouds and maybe some drizzle so the wardrobe was a t-shirt and jeans, no shorts.  Unfortunately, the sun came out for a couple of hours.  Though I believe Mom sent it to brighten my day, she seems to have forgotten some of her Mom-responsibilities as she  forgot to remind me to go inside and slather my arms with sunscreen.

No, I’m not trying for the Michael Jackson white glove look, I wear gardening gloves (sometimes) when I garden.

I spent nearly 5 glorious hours puttering the front yard.  I added some plants, unburied all the sprinkler heads and removed all the flag markers, re-staked 2 trees, finished the dead-heading I started on Saturday then took more than two dozen pictures of the now really completed front yard.

And now my fingers will shut up and instead let you enjoy some pictures of my front yard.  While you are doing that, I’m off to massage some sore muscles from all those hours of bending and stretching.

I Cried

Yesterday started out incredibly – and ended just the same.

Shortly after getting out of bed I booted up the laptop and began following the plight of the Chilean miners.  While I watched miners 8 & 9 emerge from their subterranean caves, tears filled my eyes and a couple rolled down my cheeks.  How could they not after those long tense moments while families waited for the Phoenix 2 to poke out of that tiny hole, and then the sheer joy, relief and tears when it did?  I was able to catch bits and pieces of the next 3 miners triumphant rescue before leaving for work.

I backed out of the driveway and made a stop at my mailbox to pick up my mail.  I looked inside the box and caught my breath.  I knew instantly what was in that fat white envelope – I just didn’t know what it said.  I had wondered how I would react when I saw it – would I tear the envelope open right there or wait until I could read the information in the privacy of my home?

Now that the envelope was in my hand there was no hesitation or thought other than to see what was inside.  I tossed all the other mail on my backseat then tore into that fat white envelope, scrambled through the pages of paper until I found the answer to the question that has been hanging over my head since early August.

Yes folks, my plans to convert my front yard to drought tolerant landscaping were approved!!!!  While I was thrilled with this information, a part of me was a bit sad because  the neighbor on one side of me is not going to be happy – they objected to my plans.  I was 90% sure that I had followed all the guidelines for my neighborhood, and given that I live in a near-desert climate any water conservation efforts should be encouraged and applauded, but since I’m the first to do this and there was an objection being raised, I wasn’t 100% confident.

All you readers get to take this front yard overhaul journey right along with me — but you don’t have to do the work!  Watch for update posts every Monday beginning next week on the 18th!  They’ll all be filed in the “Front Yard Conversion” heading on the right hand side of my blog so you can easily scroll through the weeks of progress any time you want.

As an aside, who was the first person I told about the approval?  I called my Daddy 

Throughout the day I checked back on the miner progress at MSNBC.com and to see that not only were the miners continuing to come out safely, but they were coming out faster than originally expected.  I didn’t shed any tears at the office but their successful rescue kept that “OMG can this day get any better?” feeling going full force!!!

I was thrilled to get home in time to watch the rescue of miners 31 and 32 on my computer.  When the siren sounded for miner 33 indicating the capsule was quickly closing in on the surface, I turned on the TV and was ecstatic to see that NBC4 was airing his emergence!!!  The tears were streaming down my face while everyone was singing the Chilean national anthem…and huge kudos to the local TV station for airing the entire song without interruption.  So moving…

With how awesome the day was can you believe there was still one more bit of awesomeness?

There was!

A couple of weeks ago our work computer guy was coming to the office so I brought my desktop computer to work and sent it home with him so he could do a complete overhaul on it.  The thing was so slow I could almost any task faster by hand then the computer could do it.  Well, said computer came back on Tuesday but I didn’t hook it up and reload all the programs until last night.

It is so incredibly fast now that it makes my laptop seem like the dinosaur!

The best news?

The 16-page quarterly family newsletter that my cousin and I created 18 months ago is once again back in business!!!  I was no longer able to do the newsletter on my laptop as it had been upgraded to Windows 7 and I couldn’t afford the upgrade for the desktop publishing program, so instead I had the old computer serviced as it runs on Windows XP.

As you might expect, I enjoyed a couple of glasses of chardonnay before going to bed so that I would be able to calm down enough to fall asleep.  It was tough but eventually I did journey to ZZZzzz land.

This morning started very rudely as the alarm had to wake me up for the first time in months, but now that I’m awake, some of yesterday’s excitement is still in me so I think it will be another good day.

I Have The Best Daddy

I know everyone thinks their Dad is the best, but mine really is!

We didn’t always have a perfect relationship, but if I needed him he was there.  He and my Mom worked very hard to give us kids a great life.  We never lacked for anything.  We lived in a 3-bedroom house in a nice neighborhood; we went on annual camping vacations, the early years in a tent followed in later years by a tent trailer; we had an above-ground swimming pool and when that let go an in-ground pool graced our backyard; we three kids had annual passes for the local ski area; there were musical instruments  with the necessary lessons; Christmas mornings dawned with stockings stuffed and presents under the tree, and our closets and cabinets were always full.   Mom and Dad provided so well that I always thought we were rich.

What an eye opener high school was when I met the kids who really were rich!!

My Dad could do anything.  He tinkered with things until they worked again, he built furniture, he finished half of our basement creating a family room and a workshop, and he finished our porch and made it part of our kitchen.  Though I’m sure he would have preferred to do a lot of this without me peeking in and asking questions, he rarely told me to leave.

When I bought my first house Dad was there to help with any project — installing a knickknack shelf 9″ down from the ceiling on three walls of my living room, putting up new shutters, laying a brick sidewalk and house sitting during oil furnace replacement and bay window installation.  Dad made sure I had the necessary big  tools too — lawn mower, snow blower, cordless screwdriver, wheelbarrow and utility cart.

Dad is older now and no longer capable to do the puttering he’d always done.  He often tells me that he wishes he could help me do things.  I always tell him that even though he can’t physically do things for me, his fingerprints are everywhere in my house thanks to all he taught me.

There’s floor-to-ceiling shelving along one wall in my office and shelving in the laundry room.  Speaking of the laundry room, the painting I did was all me, but the picket fence I made to put on the wall?  That’s was thanks to my Dad!  What about my closet overhaul?  Not only installing the shelving but removing the original shelving, including boards that were nailed flush onto the wall!  I so loved that knickknack shelf in my MA house that I installed one along two walls of my great room here in CA.  The only thing I needed help with was a mitered cut on two boards.  My neighbor Tony did that for me and was stunned that I didn’t need him to help me with anything else.  Remember that brick sidewalk that Dad helped me lay in MA?  That’s how I know what I’m doing as far as the paths in my backyard!  My lawns in both MA and CA have always looked terrific thanks to Dad teaching me all about lawn care from fertilizing to mowing.

I  could go on and on but I won’t because I don’t want to make you jealous.  I’m sure your Dads are great too, but mine is the BEST! 

A Long, Long Time Ago…

…in a country far, far away a purchase was made that led to this post!

How long ago?  21 years this August!

How far away?  Ireland!

In 1988 my brother’s job moved him and his pregnant wife to Ireland where my nephew was born that November.  In August of 1989 a friend and I headed over for a nearly 3-week awesome visit.  I have lots of pictures, memories and a few tangible treasures.

One of the treasures is my Claddagh ring.  I initially purchased it as a pinky ring but as my weight has gone up and down the ring has moved back and forth between my pinky and ring fingers.  Today it’s too big for the pinky finger and a bit too small for the ring finger, but, over the years I have learned how to get around this.  Let’s just say that my hands are sooooo very soft right now as moisturizer works very effectively as a “slide the ring onto the finger” tool.

In all honesty there are only a handful of days where this ring has not been worn, the majority are days when I’ve just hung out at the house and have been jewelry-naked.  At all other times the ring has been a faithful companion and has survived trips all over the world without getting lost.  I don’t have a single drop of Irish blood in me but I wear it in honor of my nephew, and I do think of him every time I put it on or take it off (especially when said tasks take a bit of effort).

This past Tuesday I was thinking of said nephew in the middle of the day, and though nothing came out of my mouth, the thoughts were not exactly nice.

Why?

When grabbing sheets off the printer at work, the top/crown of the ring caught on the top tray of the printer and forced the edge of the ring into my finger leaving a painful red stripe.

And the ring?  Oops…!!!

I took the now dangerous ring off and zipped it into a pocket inside my purse for safe keeping.  When I got home I fed the cat then retrieved my ring-fixing tool…

…kissed the ring, looked at the ceiling while saying “please”, exhaled deeply then squeezed the tool against the ring.

YAY!!!  Happy Dance! 

The noticeable (and dangerous) problem was fixed!!!  The non-noticeable one still exists but it doesn’t matter.  It’s just proof that the ring is worn constantly…

Good thing my fingers have plenty of padding that shifts as needed to fit inside this non-circle!!

Here’s to the next 21 years of wearing this ring!

Throwing Caution To The Wind

If you’ve read my blog lately you know that I do better than most in the healthy eating category.  Lots of salads, yogurt, homemade meals, vitamin and Viactiv.  I rarely eat at fast food restaurants though I have been on a serious McDonald’s Caramel Frappe kick.

Friday morning when I did my food shopping I splurged on a childhood favorite.

Knowing this isn’t healthy didn’t even require label reading.  Nope.  I know without a doubt that it’s not healthy because this item is not sold in the refrigerated section of the food store!

Huh?  Cheese NOT refrigerated???

Yep…not when it’s all preservatives!

But I did not and still do not care.  I can’t remember the last time I treated myself to this orange-yellow tastes-just-like-I-remember-from-my-childhood hunk of unhealthiness so I’m beyond due.  No product on this earth makes better grilled cheese sandwiches than Velveeta!

Unfortunately, because it tastes so awesome, I won’t tell you how much of said treat has already journeyed across my taste buds.  I will tell you that every single trip has brought a smile to my face, and none of it was in the form of grilled cheese sandwiches.  In fact, if I don’t stop cutting off slices I may have to buy a second chunk so that I get at least one grilled cheese (with mustard) sandwich! 

But who cares, it’s a holiday weekend, time to throw caution to the wind and let loose a little bit.  HAH…that said by the lady who spent an entire day cooking and freezing 62 healthy meals for herself!!  Irony with a capital I!

No guilty feelings here, just treasured childhood memories (and a bit of a rebellion popping up in my food choice)!

Thanks Mom!

Hi Mom!

I expect that you’re really busy up there hanging with all your relatives, old friends and new friends, so I’ll try to keep this short.  It’s Mother’s Day today and this year I’m not having as difficult of a day as some of the previous holidays, but I’m in that funky place where I’m at loose ends so I thought that I’d spend some tangible time with you today.

Do you remember the conversation we had outside my cousin & your niece Kim’s wedding?  We were discussing our common belief that those who have passed away can and do come back to visit those left behind, and I told you that should you pass away, I would welcome you any time you wanted to visit.

There’s one time that I know you visited me:  a very cold “breeze” went down my neck followed by an absolute knowledge that everything would be okay.  Within minutes confirmation of that information was before my eyes in black and white.  But there are so many more times that I know you’re around, working your maternal magic in my life.

The first time was actually the night you journeyed from this world to that one.  When we were told by the doctors that you were “actively dying” we kids rushed back to the hospital.  As I walked into your room I couldn’t feel you and I was convinced you were already gone.  But four hours later you proved me wrong.  You hovered during those hours while last rites were given and the endless wait for morphine stretched on and on.  We kids were 100% supportive of the wishes you had discussed with us years before when your kidneys first failed and none of us had any qualms about telling the doctor to shut off the machines.  We just wanted to make sure you were pain-free.  Hence the endless wait for the morphine to be brought up from the pharmacy.

When the morphine finally arrived and the doctor approached your bed you began your journey in earnest…we three kids watched the machines as they documented your transition.  You stayed with us as long as possible then left before the machines could actually be turned off, refusing to allow your kids to ever have even the tiniest twinge of guilt.  You were a mother until the very last second…

Then there was the day we went to Hawley to spread your ashes.  The two-vehicle caravan missed the dirt road turn-off the first time, but on the second try, as that road was neared, the box of ashes that had sat securely on the front floor hump for more than an hour suddenly fell off and landed at your daughter-in-law’s feet.  That was you too, wasn’t it?  You were sooooo excited to be where you wanted to be that you wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the turn again!!

This whole cross-country move of mine to California happened because of you.  One day we were talking in your kitchen and you told me that you would never forgive me if you ever found out that I passed up a job opportunity because I felt that I had to stay in MA to help you and Dad.  The second time the job was offered to me your words echoed in my head and I accepted the offer.

The move was an incredible undertaking – selling my MA house, renting an apartment in CA sight unseen and buying a yet-to-be-built house in CA while still living in MA.  And to think that was the easy stuff!  But through all of it, though there could have been hundreds of roadblocks or problems, there were only 2 minor glitches…the closing of my MA house was delayed by 5 days so I technically still owned it when I landed in CA, and the carpet in my CA house had a defect and had to be replaced so I closed on that house with an exception (the carpet was re-laid the next day).

When I start to doubt my decision or when things get overwhelming and I hold a pity party for myself, I think back on everything that I’ve done in the past 5 years and how smoothly it all went, and I know without a doubt that you have been watching over me the whole time.  Everything involved with the move went way too easy for you not to have been involved, so I have this incredible sense of peace that I’m where I’m supposed to be for whatever reason, no matter how trying things may be at times.  And when the pity party starts it may take me a while to remember that peace, but it always returns.

At times I have incredibly guilty feelings that I abandoned Dad, and they crop up more often than I care to admit.  When they do, I remember how easy my move was, and I remember the words you spoke in the kitchen that day, and I take comfort in both.  There will always be tiny twinges of guilt, but I know in my head that I did the right thing, it’s just that I have a very stubborn tiny corner of  my heart that likes to make its existence known.

There are many tangible pieces of you in my home and forever in my life.  Seeing your handwriting in your recipe notebook and on the note in the box of Gingher scissors you gave me (CAUTION – VERY SHARP!) brings a smile to my face every time I see it (and I’ve only cut myself twice on the scissors so your note does work more often than not!).

I have your cookie press and all your cookie cutters and each Christmas I revel in memories as I use both to carry on the Christmas cookie tradition.  Hanging in my closet is a pullover sweater of yours that I love to wear when I’m cold or when I really need a hug.  And I’m sure you’ve seen everything that I’ve created with your sewing machine, so many things that have made my house a home.

What about the “little” family newsletter that cousin Debbi and I are doing?  We both love doing it and it seems to be well received, but I so wish we had started it years ago.  I know you would have LOVED to be involved…in a way I guess my contribution is a tribute to you and your love of our family and its rich history.

I could go on and on for days but I’ll stop here.  There are still so many more things I could say, and want to say, but I’m trying to remember to keep this short.

Mom, THANK YOU for all you taught me, for all memories you gave me and for watching over me even now.  Have a SUPER Mother’s Day, and give hugs and kisses from me to all you are hanging with up there.

Love, Judy

Rainy Days and Mondays…

…Always Get Me Down!

As I begin writing this post it’s 6:37PM Thursday night, the clouds have finally broken up and the sun is shining; puddles still dot the street and my patio; my iPod is shuffling the songs in my “Purchased” playlist; dinner was a mish-mash of munchies; a glass of chardonnay is next to my laptop; my winter jammies are on and I’m feeling…

ICK!

Several things are weighing on my mind right now and I think they and allergies have pooled their resources to gift me a massive sinus headache right above and below the eyes.  Since my upper teeth have very long roots (translation = roots reach into congested nasal cavities) you can just imagine how sensitive and angry said teeth are!

I was all set to finish up the 12-page family newsletter tonight but shortly after I started working on it the head pain gremlins appeared.  I saved my work then went on-line to let the head unwind with some mindless web-surfing.

Unfortunately one of my first stops was Facebook and my putzy self started clicking on my friends friend lists and before I knew it, the previously bad headache had exploded to that aforementioned massive level.  So many of my former classmates are parents and even grandparents, and have incredibly interesting lives that I instantly regretted my friends-of-friends surfing.  Don’t misunderstand, I am not jealous, at least I don’t think I am, but I was suddenly back in the high school tradition of comparing my life to those of my peers and all the old insecurities came flooding back.

It took a glass of wine and a good half hour to semi-cajole myself out of that pity party.  I am very content with my life – is there room for improvement?  ALWAYS no matter who you are, but honestly, if I could wave a magic wand and change as much as I wanted, the changes would be so minimal that the wand would keel over from boredom.

Unfortunately I then headed over to the Facebook fan page for retired NASCAR driver Kyle Petty’s Charity Ride and found that they’re leaving Indian Wells, CA at 8AM on Saturday May 1st!  Since February I’ve been planning to show up for the cross-country ride send-off but really?  8AM at a location 1-1/2 hours away???  Yes, I’ll be awake in plenty of time to make the trip, but I was expecting them to leave around 10AM or so after a couple of hours of kick-off celebrations, especially since their next stop is North Las Vegas…a mere 4-5 hours away!  But 8AM???  When are the festivities???

I quickly surfed to their website and found a message apologizing for the delay in updating their schedule.  It was supposed to be updated today (Thursday) but the only update is the apology!  Maybe the kick-off I’m expecting will be Friday night???  I’m so hoping that’s the case but I DON’T KNOW!!!  I set aside hours of my May 1st Saturday…do I need to switch it to Fri night?  Should I get a hotel room so I can be there both Fri night and Sat morning????  I DON’T KNOW ‘cuz it appears THEY DON’T KNOW!  You’d think this was their 1st ride not their 16th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you feel my frustration yet???

Do you remember my mentioning, or hinting at, the word “rain”?  It has been cold and rainy here in Southern California for two days.  This past Sunday I was outside gardening in nearly 90 degree temps wearing a tank top and shorts.  The past two days?  Winter clothes in order to stay warm when the thermometer failed to reach any higher than the mid-50′s!  For the vast majority of you rain is no big deal.  BUT…for those of us in So. Cal.?  Rain this late in April, with another dose to follow next week, is as rare as Southern New England snowfall in May, and it is just as disruptive!!!

My creative side has been shut down thanks to pain and frustration which of course, as  you creative folks know, further aggravates an already bad situation, hence the pity party.

I’ve been up since 3:31AM today (Thursday) and I’m absolutely confident that being up and functioning for 16 hours is coming into play here, so I’m going to end this rambling post, shut down my computer, do my nightly bedtime routine and snore my way into ZZZZZZZZzzzz land by 8PM.  Again.

If all works according to plan I’ll be awake long before daylight and if things truly look better in the morning, then WATCH OUT Friday – Judy will be ready for you!