How would you like an update on sweet, baby Brysco?  This is him looking pretty dang healthy if you ask me.

It was a long, sometimes scary, expensive and difficult road to get here but worth both surgeries, the money, the recoveries, the sleepless nights, the worry, the numerous vet appointments, the medications and specialty foods.  Absolutely positively do not regret any of it.  He is in a pretty good place right now and back to being the silly, energetic, fun, very sweet and loving cat that we first adopted a year and a half ago!  

Obviously we have to keep a close eye on him, make sure he doesn't go backwards. That would be awful. It took so much time and work and effort (on everyone's part including his) to get him healthy again, I would hate to see him regress.  

Right now the biggest part of keeping him healthy is medication.    He is down to only needing it every other day now and you would think that was very do-able.    Just one eensy tiny little itty bitty pill every other day. Nobody would blame you for thinking that.  But you would still be wrong.

 Have you ever attempted to give a cat a pill?   The difficulty level is right about on par with disarming a bomb or attempting a reverse 4 /12 somersault dive.  Think Bull Riding mixed with Coal Mining and add in a cranky Panther.  Something along that line, except you actually are quite fond of the cranky Panther and don't want to hurt him in anyway.

I will attempt to describe how it goes in case you have never done this yourself. First you must find the cranky Panther, excuse me, the cat.  In my case, with two nearly identical black cats, we must find the Correct cat.  The one who needs the medication, not the one who doesn't.    Somehow he always knows when it's medication time. Even if I've gone nowhere near where the medication is kept, even if I haven't even whispered the word pill or medicine or anything like it. I didn't even Think it hard but he always knows. Somehow, he just knows.

Brysco like to hide in dark places. Black cats in the dark, very sneaky and very smart.  If his eyes are closed, his is virtually invisible.   He hides in the backs of closets and under beds in the farthest, most difficult to reach corners possible.  Of course he does.  I suppose I could snatch him from those hidey holes but I don't.  It's too traumatic for me and for him.  Instead I wait.  Eventually he will emerge. He will relax and think I've forgotten about it.  He will lay in a sunny spot and stretch out looking quite pleased with  himself.  And that is when I pounce.

Well I don't pounce.  I'm not a good pouncer.  But I quietly approach with the pill in one hand and the other hand ready to scruff him.  Scruffing is grabbing the cat by that extra fur at the back of the neck, much like a Mama cat does. It does not hurt them at all but it usually (Usually) renders them very compliant.   In a perfect world, the cat is scruffed with say, your left hand  and with your right hand you put a small amount of pressure at the back of the cats jaw to force it open just a little bit, with your third hand (?) you pop the pill into their mouth and, while holding the mouth closed, you massage their throat until they swallow and taadaa mission accomplished.

It didn't work like that at all.  I did approach quietly while he was relaxed in the sun.  I did scruff him, but he did not relax into compliance. Instead he shifted over into survival-I-am-being- attacked mode.  A secret kitty button was pressed and all twenty claws popped out to play. I once heard a fellow refer to those as murder mittens.  Sounds kind of cute yet dangerous.   Yup that's accurate. Murder mittens.  

To be completely fair, my hands are not very strong anymore so I don't know how tightly I was really scruffing him. Severe Arthritis has rendered my hands far less useful than I actually require much of the time. But I always have the plan to do the best I can with what I've got and at this point, I am fully committed.  I knew that I could release him knowing that he would then scurry back into his hiding place and be extra leery of my existence for a while  OR I could move forward which is what I did.

Meanwhile, he has, telepathically I think, communicated to his brother that the humans were killing him or at least torturing him and Wyatt has now run into the room to rescue him and is getting in the way, trying to stop me from doing whatever the heck it is I am doing to his brother. Very loyal and sweet but not helpful at all.

I attempted to avoid the wildly flailing claws while literally holding him now in midair. He gyrated, hissing and growling, swinging those scimitars of death at me and I stepped into it, got closer, hugged him to me to hold him more in place.  Somehow, miraculously, I did manage to shove the pill into his mouth.  I could tell when he swallowed because his body went limp. But his eyes. Oh those eyes.  They were open as wide as they possibly could and he starred at me with absolute shock.  How on earth could I have betrayed him like this?  I was a traitor, I was now the enemy and I would pay dearly.    Sounds about right.  I gently put him back on the window sill and as soon as I let go, he took off like he was fired out of a cannon.  Back into a safe hiding place to glare at me for the rest of the day while I applied bandaids strategically here and there.

It was awful.  I hated doing it to him.  He hated me doing it to him too.  There had to be a better way.  I could not bear the idea of this being our life every other day for the remainder of his life.

I watched several extremely unhelpful videos of people giving cats pills. And in each video the example cat was so easy going, cooperative and downright helpful that it didn't apply to our situation at all. But I went ahead and tried several different suggested methods.

 The burrito method (or purrito as they adorably referred to it) only works if it's a cat that will allow you to wrap it in a blanket. Brsyco will not.  He was out of that blanket faster than Houdini.

Another one was to put the pill on a washcloth, put some liquid cat treat (we refer to them as lickysticks in our house and both of the boys love them) on top of it.  The washcloth is suppose to hold the pill in place so that kitty licks don't push it across the plate/bowl or floor.  Instead, Brysco licked every bit of treat off the pill and then walked away leaving the naked pill behind.

Making a very tiny kitty meatball with the pill at the center of wet kitty food.  Other than the grossosity of handling wet kitty food in that manner,  this actually worked at first.  I made a very tiny kittyfood meatball with a medication middle and put it in his dish.  He leaned forward and gobbled it up quickly then I put the rest of the food in his dish and he was none the wiser.  I thought, Jackpot!  We've finally hit on the way that works.  Until the day shortly thereafter when he ate around the pill. Dang.

I tried getting super sneaky and making multiple kitty meatballs, making sure one had the pill. Of course he didn't know which one did,  hehhehheh, medication roulette I gleefully thought to myself. I completely underestimated how strong a cats sense of smell is  doggone it.  He would eat the two unmedicated meatballs and walk away in triumph. Ratz.

Sometimes I thought he was eating the pill but I would find it somewhere later in the day, slightly soggy and beginning to disintegrate. Obviously he had walked way, me thinking he had taken the pill but when I wasn't looking, he spit it out. Such a smarty britches!

In desperation I tried grinding the pill into a very fine powder and mixing it into his wet food.  It did work a little bit sometimes. He never ate the entire bowl of food when I did that, but he ate some. The issue here is that I had no idea how much medication he was actually getting. 

Which lead to a far bigger issue was that I could see, literally see, that he was beginning to fail a bit once again, right before our eyes from receiving sporadic and uneven amounts of medication instead of the nice steady equal distribution he needed.  Dang it all.

Tim told me about transdermal application of medication.  Transdermal application is medication in ointment form which is applied to the skin and absorbed into the body.  That sounded like a great plan.  I called the vet to discuss it and they were onboard.  They ordered it and it arrived last week.   I approached it with great hope.

It has to be applied to the inside of his ear, alternating ears with each application.  It's applied and rubbed in and that's it!  Sounds super easy yes?  Well I will say this, it is getting easier with each application rather than harder which was how it went with the pills. At this point, he thinks he's just getting pets instead of medication.  

Once again, I  approach him only when he is already relaxed and snoozy.  First he gets lots of pets, which he adores, then the medication ear massage, then more pets and all is good.  Tim helped the first few times and we are learning the tricks of the trade so to speak, as we go.

And we are seeing such a wonderful difference.  He is more consistently playful, funny, silly, energetic and loving.  He spends more time each day awake and engaged.  Best of all, he is starting to put on a pound or two which was seriously needed.

I think finally, FINALLY, we have the medication method that works for us and for him and Brysco is on his way to the rest of a very healthy happy life!

Welcome to yet another Photo Safari Report.  I'm calling this one the WhirlyBird Hike for obvious reasons.  While Joy and I were tramping along,  fairly early in the hike,  I asked Joy if she could smell smoke. She agreed and we searched the sky for signs of smoke and saw nothing, but then our view was a bit obstructed by giant trees.  But it was no surprise when shortly thereafter we both heard and saw this bright red helicopter or whirlybird flying just above the tree tops, back and forth, over and over, in what I assume was a grid pattern,  perhaps searching for the source of the smokey smell?  Or maybe the fire had already been put out but they were making sure that the wind (it was a rather windy day) hadn't carried any embers off to begin another fire anew.  It is, after all, still our dry season and in a forest, it doesn't take much to go from small fire to raging inferno, y'know?  Safety First!

Still between the smokey smell and the very loud helicopter it was awhile before we saw much worth taking pictures of.  It's ok, some hikes have a zillion photos, and others just a few.  This one is the second type which means it'll  be a short post.  Ready, set go!

The first photos were taken as we were entering the Preserve.  Seriously, we had just turned onto the dirt road that leads us to the parking area when Joy glanced off to her left and saw them. Sand Hill Cranes~!~  Wow!  I was cleaning the lens on my camera in preparation so I handed her my camera and she quickly snapped these guys right out the window:

It felt like a great start!  Eventually, we did see quite a nice variety of birds, the best and most unique of which was an indigo bunting. We had just turned on to a side trail when Joy and I both saw him at the same time, but Joy was quicker with her camera than I was.  By the time I had my camera up and focused, he was long gone.  Luckily Joy was kind enough to share her photo with me so here is this little turquoise cutie:

The rest of the birdie gang, most of which you probably recognize is here.  The only kind of different one is a crested something that I cannot remember. Joy told me and I've already forgotten. Ah well, He knows who he is:

Time for some botanicals and a couple of randos

We've come to the end of the WhirlyBird Hike AND the end of the week.  Hope your weekend is a terrific one with loads of fun and laughter!  We'll meet again, right here next week.  No idea what I'll be writing about, but it'll be something.

​Hugs all 'round

Despite the cover photo (and isn't it a doozey!) this is not a Photo Safari Report.  Nope, Photo Safari Reports are exclusively reserved for when Joy and I set out, cameras in hand, together.  This was something else altogether.

Tim and I had the genuine pleasure of spending one morning this weekend with another photography minded couple who we had never met before in person.  I belong to a photography group online and I "met" the couple there.  As much as you can really get to know someone online, I enjoyed them and took the opportunity, when offered, to meet them in person this past weekend. I know, I know, general consensus is that is always a bad idea. Especially when their photography is something I greatly admire.   

They, especially the hubby of the couple, are seriously dedicated photographers and they travel all over the world taking the most amazing photographs.  The fact that such experienced, interesting, successful photographers were interested in meeting us at all was flattering in the extreme. I have long been an admirer of their work and now, perhaps, (I was hoping) to have the opportunity to learn at the hands of yet another photography master (Joy being the other one).  for some people it's singers, actors or athletes, for me it's artists and photographers.

Not only did I learn, but I was encouraged and even praised by someone I greatly admire,  The biggest surprise was that I was also relaxed into an easy comradery with these people.  Tim and I both enjoyed their company tremendously.  It was that rare feeling that was as if we had known them forever.  To our surprise, they expressed the exact same thing.  Awesome. Love when that happens.

Here are some of the photos that I took.  Hope you enjoy!

One of my favourites was this young bird who hadn't quite figured out how his wings worked yet. He was adorable, awkwardly attempting to flap around the nest while his parents calmly looked on:

Another favourite moment was watching this bird fighting with a vine while attempting to gather yet more nesting material.  PS the vine fought back:

There were quite a few nests, some with tiny baby birds in them, all being lovingly tended:

An impressive variety of birds were in the area. Here are just a few of them:

Managed to capture a few flowers too:

And even a few randos:

They say, "never meet your heroes" but  in this case, it worked out perfectly.  

This is a crow.  Just your basic crow.  A regular bird. I'm sure you've seen them and probably not paid a great deal of attention to them. Me either.  Until Sydney.

We have our own crow now and I've named him (or her)  Sydney.  Why?  I have no idea.  I tend to name creatures and that was the name I arbitrarily chose.

I first noticed Sydney when  we put a bird bath in the courtyard.  There were a few small birds that occasionally came by to use it, but it wasn't exactly a high traffic area.  I was considering moving the birdbath and debating where to place it when I looked out the window one day and saw this massive black bird perched precariously on the edge and helping himself to a drink.   Wow!

I thought it was great the cats weren't certain how they felt about it.  They were also watching out the same window and looked at me with big round eyes that kind of said, "What they heck?"  Crows are good sized birds y'see. The wingspan alone is more than a yard across! That's a wee bit intimidating to a small cat !

The second time the crow showed up at the birdbath, he actually used it for a bath.  Water went everywhere as he splashed around. It was very entertaining though I was concerned for his safety as the birdbath was originally not intended for a bird his size and the structure tipped a little this way and that as he enjoyed himself.  After he left and I replaced the water, I also took the time to make sure the birdbath was more stable for his weight.  He returned multiple times which was when I bothered to name him. 

And then suddenly, one day without warning, he was gone. Just disappeared. Awwww, bummer.  I read up on birdbaths and attracting birds. I moved the birdbath to the backyard to an area that seemed more bird friendly and still no Sydney. Nor any other birds either.  I stopped concerning myself with the birdbath after a few months. If nobody is using it, why I am constantly putting in fresh water, y'know?    Then last year's hurricane season happened, and the birdbath was damaged.  The subject became Moot.

A few months after hurricane season, I was cleaning out the pantry one day and noticed that somehow, we had collected multiple boxes of microwave popcorn that was very short dated. I started to just throw it away and at the last second held back.  I suppose I could go ahead and pop it all and put it outside for birds/squirrels/whoever wanted it.   I filled a large garbage bag with all of the popped corn, scooped one bowl of it and gave it a toss into the backyard without any real thought.  I figured that I would check the next day and if it was gone, hurrah, somebody enjoyed it.  If it was still there, I could always just throw it away. After all, it was already in a garbage bag, right?

To my surprise I had barely made it back into the house when a crow landed and gobbled up some of the treat, ate it with apparent relish and then grabbed some more before flying off with it.  As I watched, he returned for several more trips before the popcorn was all gone!  Hurrah! Sydney was back!

Every day, around the same time, I put a bowl sized scoop of popcorn outside in the same general area and every day, as soon as I went back inside, Sydney would come down and enjoy it before taking some with him to, I guess, share.  Huzzah!

Eventually I ran out of popcorn, but found some slightly stale cereal which he also loved, some broken granola bars of which he was also fond and currently I set out crackers for him.  He loves them all.  I hear him caw to announce his presence around 9 o'clock every morning now.  I go outside and yell, Hey Sydney!  and hold up my hand with the crackers so he can see that I have a treat for him.   I put the crackers on the ground in the same spot and, usually, he swoops from the tree to the rooftop and then, once I've gone inside, to the ground to eat.

I was thrilled a few weeks ago when he gracefully glided from the roof's edge to the ground while I was still outside.  I believe we have established a level of trust.  It is so amazing that Sydney and I have created this Trust between us. We cannot  communicate really, so it's not like there was a negotiation or a discussion.  But I suppose I've proven that I mean him no harm and that was good enough for him.  It's good enough for me too :)

In reading about crows, I've learned that they are extremely smart creatures. Apparently, they have the same brain weight to body ratio as humans.   They are inquisitive, curious and clever.  They create tools to use and are quite adaptable to their surroundings and situations. In my reading I learned that they are monogamous and that while some cultures believe them to represent death, other cultures believe them to be good luck omens.  I also now know that a group of crows is referred to as a murder, which is an unkind choice of words!

As far as intelligence goes, I have seen Sydney tucking crackers away in different parts of the yard, saving them for later so I know he's giving the situation a great deal of thought. He doesn't turn food down, but he doesn't waste it either.  Smart!

I took a few photos from the family room window the other day of Sydney and his crackers:

I believe I misspoke before. I said that we have our own crow now.  That's not true.  We don't own Sydney and more than he owns us.  He is his own bird, comes and goes as he pleases. Isn't the expression "as free as a bird after all?  So no, we do not have a crow, but there is a local one that trusts us enough to eat what we have to offer and isn't afraid of us. And that'll do.

I'm really glad that Sydney decided that we were ok.  Not as good as crows, of course, but as human go, we aren't half bad.

I went back through my recent pictures and found a few other non-Sydney crow photos to finish up with.  Hope you enjoy!

Ready for yet another Photo Safari Report?  Yay!  Well come on down then!  Let's go!

As you can clearly see from the photo above it was a truly gorgeous day. Perfect for a good long hike.  Joy and I kept trudging along for just over 5 miles and loved every second of it.  We hit up a preserve we rarely go to, not becoz we don't enjoy it, we do!  But because, due to heavy morning commute traffic, it's hard to get to.  Still every once in awhile, we go anyway, patiently waiting for the perfect size gap in traffic to pull a you-ee  and set to.  I'm going to name this one the Animal Uber Hike and I'll explain that in just a minute here.

A few miles into this hike we got to a place that is normally completely flooded over, making it impossible to go any further along that particular trail, so it was a real treat that to be able to hike beyond that spot.  This being the dry season, most of the lake was MIA but there was just enough water left to attract quite a variety of critters including: roseate spoonbills, egrets, crows, ibis and several others.   Very Pretty. Reminds me of a Monet painting :)

They were all very hard at working looking for their breakfasts and therefore were completely  ignoring us.  The ignoring us part was especially important because we also saw a wild hog close by.   Yikes!

Looks a little like the loveable, adorable, Eeyore of Winnie the Pooh fame doesn't he?  Well, just for the record, they are not loveable or adorable. In general they are mean tempered and cranky and just as apt to hurt you as not.  Usually we give them wide berth!  But since he was Very Occupied and on the complete other side of the pond from us, we quietly took our photos and tippy toed onward past him with no problems. Whew!

However, on the way back, we saw that not only was he still there, but he was giving a ride to a crow!  Animal Uber!  LOLOL

We saw a lot of Scrub Jays on this hike which was nice since we haven't seen any in awhile.  They are especially fun to see because they aren't afraid of people and seem to love having their photos taken.  They literally were posing for us!  Here's a set of Scrub Jay pictures:

Yes, there were other birds. Of course there were. Want to check those out too?  Okey dokey:

Got some pretty botanicals too.  Let's face it, on such a beautiful day, it was genuinely difficult to take a bad photo. I did manage of course, but I was shocked at how few pictures I deleted during edit!  Henceforth, trees/ flowers/etc.

And finally, FINALLY, we are starting to capture dragonflies again, which means butterflies cannot be far behind!  Huzzah!

We have, once again, come to the end of another Photo Safari Report.  Hope you enjoyed the Animal Uber Hike.  What could be better than a great hike on a beautiful day with a terrific person, seeing and capturing lovely things AND having a good giggle too.

Hope today is the start of a Fabulous Week for all of you! 

Leaving you with photos of us  (Joy on the left and me on the right)

The above photo, which I did not take by the way,  is of both the Venice and Nokomis jetties which form a channel which in turn is an entrance to the Intercoastal Waterway.   If you've never heard of the Intercoastal Waterway (or just intercoastal)  it is a 3,000 mile inland waterway that runs along the Atlantic and Gulf of the US.    It stretches from Massachusetts south along the Atlantic Seaboard around the southern tip of Florida and ends in Brownsville Texas.  In short, it's quite long.  heh  And wildly popular with boaters.

Venice, the town we live in has the south Jetty and Nokomis, which is one town north of us, obviously has the north jetty.  Both have a lovely long walkout  which is lined with enormous rocks and is usually populated with sightseers ogling dolphins and manatees, fisher people, folks waiting to watch the sunset and loads of birds.  There are often surfers to be seen, boats to wave at and a public beach to access.  Ours used to have a snack shack called, Jetty Jacks that offered, in addition to food and drinks, live music, clean bathrooms and picnic tables  - some with umbrellas for shade.  used to have.

Our jetty is pretty much toast right now. The last hurricane season beat the absolute snot out of it. Jetty Jacks sadly, was completely destroyed and the rest is, well, it's barricaded right now. Though shalt not pass!    We are coming dangerously close to hurricane season once again and our jetty remains closed.  Oh I'm sure that eventually it will be repaired and that will be grand but in the meantime, we are jetty-less.

The folks who fish can fish elsewhere, off the pier if nothing else, sightseers can see wildlife from any point on the beach and y'know, we are in island so there is a lot of beach /waterfront to choose from,   The sunset  is right there in the same spot, every night, all you have to do is look west.  I'm not certain where the surfers went.  It's just a matter of time and patience until it is repaired and once again accessible to all.

But in the meantime, poor Tim is going through some sort of Jetty Withdrawal I think.  For reasons known only to Tim, our jetty just speaks to him. It was one of his most  favorite places to be here.  That's where we  went to watch the solar eclipse (with the proper eye protection naturally).  It's also where we would sometimes go on a moonless night to star gaze very very very late.  As if we were tourists we would go there, on the regular, camera in hand to capture frolicking dolphins, huge waves, not yet dangerous but still very impressive storms, bird close ups and whatever else happened to be there.  We went there to celebrate, to eat donuts on cold rainy mornings,   to squint through thick chewy fog to see what appeared to be ghost ships passing through the channel or just to find some peace when life gets to be a bit much.

And now, it's not an option.  He misses it. He doesn't complain of course, he's not the sort of person who complains about anything. But I know him.  And I know how much he misses being there.  If jetty visits were a once in a long while thing, it wouldn't be a big deal.  But it was at least weekly, sometimes multiple times in a week that Tim and I, or just Tim alone, would end up there. I felt so badly for him :(

This past weekend it occurred to me that the Nokomis jetty had reopened. Perhaps a visit to that jetty would fill the gap so to speak?  So on Sunday, we drove over to check it out. 

We stood at the edge looking down into the water from the rocks, we watched the birds, waved to the boats and made out way on to the beach and watched the sun begin it's descent.  Eventually we left.  I asked him how he felt about it and he said it was fine but just not the same.  And he was completely correct.  We stood on the Nokomis side looking at what remained of the Venice side with longing and nostalgia and, I suspect, missed it more than ever.  

For some things, there simply are no substitutes, it seems.

But hey, we tried.  And it isn't as though we had a bad time after all, we did not.  But it wasn't the same.

I did take a few photos which I will end with.  Eventually our jetty will be repaired, I have no doubt and then we can return to visit one of Tim's favourite places.

I'm going to be 72 this year so I am completely qualified to the following opinion:  Getting Old Sucks.  In fact, it sucks rocks, it stinks on ice, it's gnarly pits, it's.....I cannot come up with a phrase that adequately explains how downright lousy it is.  

Those of you who are around my age will probably agree that 90% of being old is crap.  If you are younger, you will not understand no matter how compassionate and empathetic you might be.

It started small and sneaky, almost like a comic book villain.  A few wrinkles and crinkles around the eyes that we justify by calling them, "smile lines".  "Isn't that adorable?    I started noticing them (they were probably there before but I don't look in the mirror very often) when I was mid 50's.  I piffled it off and declared that it didn't bother me a bit.  (I was lying both to me and everyone around me. It bothered me, a lot)

Then it was the things affected by gravity.  Let me start by saying that I'm glad we have gravity, I'm happy to be firmly placed upon this planet but when it comes to the impact of gravity upon my personal person, not a fan.  Gravity pulls everything down and I mean everything (it's why we fall down and not up afterall).  I began looking in the mirror even less than before. That's how I combat my enemies - with a strong wallop of denial!

When it came to arthritis, I couldn't pretend it wasn't there, dang it.  It wasn't just the pain and believe me when I say this, it hurts, all day every day there is some degree of what the medical books laughingly describe as "discomfort".  If you have arthritis, you understand, if you don't, you absolutely do not.  For me, the pain alone wasn't the biggest issue it was that suddenly, my fingers were pointing in all sorts of wrong directions and most of the joints no longer bent.  the accuracy of my typing was severely impacted coz the doggone keyboard keys were no longer where my fingers were aiming.  And of course the lack of ability to bend my fingers also meant playing violin was out of the question, picking up small objects takes a lot of creative problem solving and even people who seriously need to be punched, would go punchless.  

Growing up, even into younger adulthood, I saw a doctor once a year.  As a kid it was shots and the school and sports team clearance more than anything.  Once a year was frankly more than necessary.  Suddenly one innocent annual doctor appointment ends up being referred to specialists of all sorts.  Now we have an entire rolodex worth of medical professionals and it feels like there is some sort of doctor appointment happening every month.  Our calendars are cluttered up with all sorts of medical nonsense.  

The old digestive system that never let us down as kids allowing us to eat an entire batch of chocolate chip cookies with potato chip chips on the side and a soda chaser with impunity, now balks at the stupidest things.  Spicy food?  No I'm sorry, my body doesn't like that anymore.  Fried foods?  Oh it smells so good, but I'm afraid I would have to pay the price later. Citrus? nope. Acidic foods? negative.  Pizza?  Oh I love it way more than it loves me, I'm afraid.   Ice cream?":  Stop torturing me!  The list of foods we cannot (or should not) eat is much longer than the ones we can.  Most of what's left is very boring.

Then there is the really scary stuff, cognitive issues.  Walking into a room and not remembering why.  Setting down my glasses and having no idea where.  Starting one project and getting distracted by another part way through over and over so that by the end of the day I am surrounded by a half dozen, half-finished projects.  There are days when I walk around all day thinking, "there is something that I forgot to do" and not realizing what that thing was until the next day. All those times when I cannot think of the word I want to use.  I know what letter it starts with, I know what the word means, I just cannot for the life of me think of the dang word.  ARGH!  Frustrating and terrifying all in one.

Fatigue is a close personal friend now.  I get out an exercise, I do.  Nearly every day I get out and walk, whether it's around town, into town to do errands, to get to wherever I need to go (I walk errands rather than run them heh) or in the forest on a Photo Safari.  I am not the sort that just sits on my tushy all day. I have a round of exercises that I thoroughly hate doing but loyally do at least 3 or 4 times a week. And I'm busy with volunteer work, yard work, shopping, cooking, baking, cleaning, planning and my many interests.  All of these things are highly recommended activities to combat fatigue and yet.............and yet!  Every single afternoon around 3 or 4 o'clock I could easily have a little nap.  A tiny snooze.

Someone (much younger than I) recently was talking to me about certain aspects of the global/political scene and while I was able to calmly reasonably intelligently discuss the topic with her, I wasn't getting all steamed up about it.  And that made her a little annoyed.  "Why aren't you mad about this?", she demanded, "You are sitting there just as calm and cool as a cucumber instead of really being PO'd".  I answered without giving it a seconds thought, "I'm too tired to be angry".  It seems that, for me at least, being angry takes a lot more energy than being calm or being happy or pleased or content or anything positive and I just don't have the oomph for anger anymore.

For the most part, we don't complain about it.  My Nana used to say that there is no point in complaining about the heat because complaining doesn't make it a dang bit cooler.  Same goes for this getting old stuff.  Not only will complaining not change it, it's boring to talk about. It is!  It's dull and boring and nobody wants to hear it. So when anybody says, "How are you?"  My immediate answer is "just fine, how are you?"  even when I am very clearly not fine.

As you can plainly see, there isn't much to like about getting old.  Well maybe one thing.  I find that I am more apt to speak my mind now.  usually in a kind, polite way, but still if you ask my opinion, beware because you will hear the truth. Sometimes I will even give a warning, "Be absolutely certain that you want to hear my answer because I will tell you what I really think".  This is new for me and for the most part it's a good thing.

The other, slightly related thing, is that I don't always say yes now.  Sometimes  I say no.  Again politely and kindly, but firmly.  "Hey come join us for pickleball?"  'No thank you, but kind of you to ask." 'oh come on, it's fun"  "I'm glad you enjoy it"  "Really!  It'll be good for you"  "no thank you, I am not much of a sports person".  See! Most of that was very polite but firm.    Turns out you can say almost anything as long as you have a smile on your face.

One of the biggest and life altering things I can do now is say no with NO explanation.  This brand spankin' new for me!  "Hey we are having a party on the 12th, would you like to come?"  "No thank you". The end.  I was a shocking revelation for me that not only could I say no but I didn't have to explain why. Just no.  Wow!   And now I can do that.  I make no apology for wanting a nap mid afternoon, or turning down the offer of eating Thai food, or not wanting to loan out a precious book.  it's  whole new me. And I like it.

Why I am suddenly so much brave so say no, to speak my mind, I have no  idea but I'm positive that it's related to being older and I am grateful for it.  I am so much more confident in my own decision making these days.  I don't second guess myself as much, I don't over think like I used to either.  Both good things.  

I reckon that's it.  My opinion about getting old is, avoid it if you can.  Put it off as long as possible. I don't care how many cute commercials they show on TV of smiling old folks loving life (and I do love my life - don't get me wrong) and having a ball, most of getting old sucks. Be prepared.

Here it is folks, the promised Photo Safari Report from last week. Since this hike was on Joy's birthday we will call this one the Joy's Birthday Hike. Sometimes the hikes name themselves.

As you can see, we started out fairly early, which is such a pretty time of day even if it means also a chillier time of day with heavy dew on the ground.  Which in turn means we wear toasty layers and our feet get wet and therefore also very dirty.  (the dirt sticks to the wet y'see) Oh well. But since we both hike in sneakers and sneakers are washable it's no biggie.

Like lots of our hikes, there were areas with not much going on and other spots where we stood in one spot taking one photo after another over and over for quite some time.  We do move around in that one spot because the shots are in every direction all at the same time. We resemble photo snapping whirling dervishes more than anything in those moments.  And then the moment is gone, we move on and that's just how it works.  We are good with it.

I'll begin at the beginning with some bird photos. The first photo of the day was of a bird and the last one was too.  Very "full circle".  I love when that happens:

,I was surprised and pleased with the number of wildflower photos I got , some perhaps past their classically considered prime true enough, but always beautiful no matter what:

The forest was, as it always is, breathtakingly beautiful just on it's own:

I even have a couple of Randos for the post today!

I reckon that's about the size of it.  It was a good hike. I would go so far as to say that it was a great hike!   Hope you had a good time reading the Joy's Birthday Hike Photo Safari Report. 

See you soon!  

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Yesterday was Joy's birthday !!!  All together now:  "Happy Birthday, Joy!"  Oh that was nice.  Her request for her birthday was a hike which is what we do almost every Thursday so that was easy to give her :)  There were a very small gifts and some oatmeal cookies too.  Not bad.

You know, as sisters go, I got really lucky. Joy is one of the good ones.  While our interests and talents are not much the same - she is an artist and a dancer and a genius quilt maker while I'm more of a reader, writer, housemouse type - she has always been my biggest supporter.  Back when I used to write music, I would send her tapes of me playing and singing the songs I wrote and then she would listen and call me and we would discuss them.  Which meant that she honestly, actually, really and truly listened to each and every one of those doggone tapes.  That's huge.

In school she was super popular and active in social groups like theatre, art and dance while I had a very small (emphasis on the very) circle of friends and spent a lot of time on my own hanging around libraries and typewriters.   But we shared a room, in a courteous way, and helped each other out with whatever the other needed.  We comprised on room colours and were genuinely interested in each other's lives even though our personalities were very different.

I suspect that part of the reason that two people who were so very different, (even though we are still to this day told how much we look alike) got along so well was that in our childhood years, we moved so very much.  Life was sometimes kind of traumatic and difficult for one reason or another and we were always stepping into the unknown.  There was sometimes stress and pressure in the household which of course needed to stay secret and that left the two of us often feeling very much alone. There were times when we were all we had.  So we cherished and nurtured and so carefully protected our collective which, I suppose, was sisterhood.

After sharing a room for our whole childhood,  we were finally separated when I left for college after which I moved on with my life and she with hers. And it so happened that life dictated that we would live far away from each other for the greater part of our adult lives.  But we couldn't really be separated so we burned up the phone lines on a regular basis, talking, listening, supporting, sharing, venting and advising.  And to this day, nobody can make me laugh harder and longer than she can.  We crack each other up, laugh until we cry, leave the room separately to calm down and then when we return all we have to do is look at each other and we start laughing all over again. That's priceless.

In our entire lives, we never really fought, never raised our voices and certainly never resorted to violence!  Come to think of it I do remember one occasion when Joy - for whatever reason was willing to poke the bear.  We were in primary school still, in California in the second house there.  Joy was inside and I was outside charged with watering the garden.  I'm not why, but Joy was feeling a little bold and silly both at the same time and was mocking me through the open window, making fun to me having to do a chore while she was foot loose and fancy free.  I listened to the teasing through three different windows (two rooms) and suddenly for a brief moment, turned the hose on her. Through the open window.  Into the house.  She was shocked into silence, sputtered a moment and then started laughing. I mean way deep down in  the belly laughter!  Which made me laugh too and we ended up sopping up the wet floor (and furniture - yikes) together and our parents never knew.  That's the best kind of sisterhood.

Now for the past almost 9 years now, finally we are living in the same state, only about a half hour apart and how very nice to get to spend time together, once a week at least, to giggle and vent and listen and talk and support and advise once more, but now live and in person.  

We still have different interests, personalities and talents though there is more crossover now. We've both raised our beautiful, wonderful and amazing children (she had all girls, I had all boys).  We both retired from jobs that were in medical offices, departments and clinics (odd eh?) And now here we are, hanging out together because we enjoy each other's company, hiking because we love getting out in nature, taking photos because that has become a shared interest (her pictures are a zillion times better than mine, but she is patient and teaches and I learn more every time we go out).   We still talk and listen and crack each other  up every single week.

We both a little creaky now, a little grey, a little wrinkley and we both have discovered the frustration of arthritis in our hands.   When we are out together, whether we are hiking through forests or off on a shopping adventure (always hilarious) we aren't two old ladies anymore, we are kids again, two sisters who always have each other's backs, giggle a lot and never run out of things to talk about.  We always share what we have, listen with open hearts and quite honestly, I cannot imagine my life without my sister in it.

Happy Birthday Jo!

I will write up the Photo Safari Report from yesterday's hike next week, I promise!

Yeah, I know, the photo is a little crooked.  Sorry about that.  Doesn't change that fact that this is a photo of the Kittyboys new little house!  Isn't it the cutest thing?  And since, as you can see,  there is a kitty napping in the little house, it is a hit! They like it!

About a year ago we had received something we ordered online that came in a pretty big box and rather than throw away the box, I had made it into the Kittyboy Hideout which had two doors and a skylight!  They loved it. In fact, they loved it to death.  Eventually we had to finish breaking it down and throw it away. So sad.  

I think Wyatt was a little more okay with it but Brysco missed it so much that he kept trying to turn other things into his new kittyhideout. Things like Tim's office garbage can.  Anytime we wanted to throw something away, we had to check it for kitties first.  

 It was very obvious that Brysco not only wanted a new hiding spot, he actually needed it. Ok.  The plan was to make one out of the next box that arrived.  But here's the thing, not all boxes are created equally.

Some boxes are too small, others are too flimsy and some, apparently smell "funny" as they are immediately rejected by both resident felines after a few tentative sniffs.  It took some time and a lot of "testing but finally, two boxes showed up within a few days of each other that passed all three tests: they were of a decent size, sturdy and passed the stink test.  Tim set out to create a nifty little kitty house.  In very short order it was complete and before it was even done, there was a cat in it.  Success!  With the addition of a nice soft kitty sized blanket, Brysco was snoozing inside it within about fifteen minutes of completion.  Yay!

I, of course, cannot leave well enough alone andI decided to decorate it. Armed with scissors, tape and wrapping paper, I evicted the resident cat and set to work. Eventually, I had made an adequate mess (even though it wasn't fully decorated) that  Brysco decided enough was done enough and jumped back in, giving me "the look" which dared me to remove him again.  I wisely decided that at least for now, it was done.

Tim did a great job and it is kitty approved.  Not only is it snazzy looking and cozy for napping, it even has a back window which is roughly kitty face shaped. Awwwwww.

The only downside is that it is the size of one full grown cat, not two.  There have been a few tussles over who gets to be in the little kitty house. Brysco seems to win every time even though he is far smaller than his brother. He must be a sneaky fighter. If you cannot win with brawn you gotta use brains.

So we will be on the lookout for another box or set of boxes which meet the same criteria and then Wyatt can have his own little house.  That does not mean there will be no fussing over the boxes you understand.  Of course there will be.  Just  like with human children.   Shenanigans abound with kids and with cats.  In this case it's Kitty Shenanigans!  

Yesterday, for example, was a very chilly, rainy, windy day and there is something about those barometric pressure changes that make cats crazy!  They were tearing around the house as if hungry tigers were chasing them, tussling in window sills, leaping out at each other from behind furniture  and I swear, at one point they were holding chariot races in the kitchen!

On Sunday, Tim pulled out a big ladder to work on the nonfunctional living room ceiling fan.  He set the ladder up first then went to get the rest of the things he needed for the job. When he returned, he discovered that he had an assistant for the project.  Brysco!

Whenever I'm writing at the computer I have my own personal assistant, Wyatt who pats at the words appearing on the screen as I type and walks across the keyboard if I take my hands off for two seconds!  He's helping!

They sit in the chairs at the kitchen island watching me cook and bake with great interest.  They especially like when I let them sniff each thing. They are very good and never attempt to eat it, they just want to find out how it smells.

They inspect all packages that enter the house, especially grocery bags, assist in both removing and replacing bedsheets and are quick to remind us if we are late with a meal or if they even suspect that it's possible that we might be late with a meal.  Or a snack. 

A small cranky aside at the point:  This time change thing is really hard on them.  It's tough for all pets and young children I think.  After all they do not operate on clock time, they follow Tummy time. and Tummy time does not fall back or leap forward.  I really really really despise the time change.  Pick one and keep it.  I honestly do not care which one, just choose dang it.

Anyway,  all is well in kittyland for the most part. Brysco has a follow up appointment at the vet tomorrow morning and fingers crossed that all is well.  That poor little guy has had more than his fair share of troubles.  Wyatt on the other hand has been hale and hearty the entire time we've had him. When I pointed the difference in the brothers out to the vet he pointed at Wyatt and said, "You must have gotten the extended warranty for that one".  heh

Ok I guess that was it.  It should be clear to you by now that we live a Very Exciting Lifestyle :) But it works for us and for the kittyboys who say, "Thanks for reading about us!"   They are suckers for attention.

I know, I know, I'm a slacker.  I haven't posted all week 'til now.  It's been kind of a crazybusy week so I apologize.  Not too busy to miss hiking day though so here we go with this week's Photo Safari Report.  Hope you are wearing a cozy sweater.  Don't let the sunshine fool you, it was dang cold outside for this hike. I am calling this one the Blustery Day Hike since it was not just chilly but very very windy too.  Enough so that it was slim pickin's as far as wildlife photos. 

​The light however was exquisite.    The above photo is totally unedited. I did nothing to it artificially. I didn't crop it,or brighten it or use any of the (small amount) of editing tools available to me to make a photograph better.  This one was perfect, just as it was.

We saw very few birds , or rather very little variety of birds.  There were a lot of one particular sort tho, all hunkering down against the wind trying to stay warm, poor things, while still fishing for their breakfasts.  These are all herons, different ones, not multiple photos of the same one, I promise:

Herons were not the only birds we saw, just the most plentiful.  There were a few others.  Ready?  Here we go:

We kept remarking that we weren't seeing any ground critters, no mousies, no lizards or squirrels and not even a rabbit!  But my guess is that the bunnies and the rest were all toas ty warm in their little burrows, wearing their fuzzy slippers and warm robes, watching cartoons and eating poptarts by the fire.  Smarter than us for sure!

Moving on to what we did see.  Number one with a bullet was, way  too many of these guys.  But then, it's their "house" so I shouldn't be surprised.  They were also trying to get warm, laying on the banks in the sun, despite the chilly temps and snappy wind gusts.  Let me tell ya, that wind had teeth!

Honestly the biggest star of the show on this hike was the quality of the light.  There is something very special about the early morning light on a cold day.  Everybody talks about the "golden hour"  in the late afternoon/early evening and no question, it's gorgeous!  But give me this early chilly light every time. Part of it is the richness of colour whether it's on the on the water, in the air  or on the greenery The light sifting down through the canopy of trees creating shadow and highlighting everything else is perfection. Here's a few other examples, it's all just scenery shots soo please indulge me:

Enough of me waxing poetic. Maybe it's time now for a few randos:

I guess that's it.  We have come to the end of another adventure, another Photo Safari Report.  Thanks for coming along on the Blustery Day Hike.  Hope you bundled up and stayed warm!

Have a terrific weekend ya'll and we'll meet here again one day next week!  Got lots more to tell you!
Hugs all 'round.

Hard to tell from these particular photos, I know, but Joy and I (that's me on the left and Joy on the right) seem to get ourselves in some funny positions when we are out hiking!  heh.  At least this time it was SUNNY!  First time in weeks we had sunshine on hiking day!  Woohoo!  We knew it was going to be a Great Day. It was an auspicious beginning.

In actual fact, we did find ourselves in odd positions a time or two during this hike, not the least was which was the three different times we ended up in the exact same spot!  Even though each time we had a different starting point and came in from a different direction, ultimately, over and again,  we found ourselves in that one same spot!   The second time through we muttered a quiet little, "gosh this looks familiar" to each other  but the third time was just a flat out, "Oh no!  Here we are again!" followed by bursts of helpless laughter!  So with that in mind, I'm calling this Photos Safari, the "round and 'round hike" .

Despite the mild frustration of the Kafka-esque situation,  it did result in a few terrific photos because that one ever returnable spot had wild iris's growing everywhere!  What a treat! We appreciated how perfect and rare to find something so elegant and refined amidst the wild surroundings:
​

There were plenty of other wildflowers to be seen throughout the hike though the Iris's were definitely the stars of the show:

Other botanical type stuff:

Oh, you expected to see some birds?  I got Birds for ya. Including two eagles (in the same tree!) and a hawk!!  It was a good birdie day

A couple of randos just for fun:

Overall I'd say it was a great hike, repeat viewings of one particular part of the forest  notwithstanding.  heh.   Hope you had a good time joining me for the "Round and Round hike". It was a terrific Photo Safari I think.

And just in case you wondered, as it turns out, the forest loves us, just as much as we love it.  You want proof?  We saw this right in the trail path:

Awwwww!  We Heart You Too Mother Nature!

In a bizarre bit of serendipity, late last week the "check engine" lights in both Tim's car and mine popped on late last week.  Dang.  We decided to tackle the issue one vehicle at a time and since Tim drives about a zillion times more than I do, obviously, his car is the one currently at the garage awaiting a repair verdict.  Sigh.

I think everyone in the known universe is well aware of how I feel about driving  (boo hiss)  but did  you know that feeling extends to cars in general?  Yup, I am not a fan.  And I wish, I so wish, I could say that it was for save the planet type altruistic reasons but it's not. It's primarily because they are a constant financial drain.

First there is the initial purchase price which is big buckerooties, then registration, taxes, insurance  and the continual updates on those things.   Oil changes, brake repair, tire rotation and eventual replacement, windshield wiper blades and batteries.  Here in Florida, probably due to the heat and humidity in summer, we have to replace batteries far more often than normal. And those are just the normal things that costcostcost but are expected.  Then there are the things you don't expect like "check engine" lights blinking on out of the blue.  And, of course,  there is no such thing as an inexpensive car repair. It just doesn't happen.  Then there is the gas to fuel the vehicle OR if you have an electric car the cost of getting the hole Plug-In set up in your garage (assuming you have one) and cost of replacement batteries which I understand is prohibitive. 

Eventually the day comes when the car must be replaced and then it all starts over again. It's like the longest con in the world. It never ends.  grrrrrrr.  No matter how careful you are, regardless of how perfectly you maintain it, somewhere along the way, something is, unexpectedly, going to go wrong and kapow, car trouble followed by a big bill.

Luckily for us, we live in a very walkable town which is unusual, in the US anyway, AND the weather is very nice right now.  If you gotta walk to the grocery store carrying home multiple heavy bags, it's nice to do it when the temps aren't screaming and the humidity is just a whisper. 

Luckier still is that we have a good repair garage where the people are really nice and good at what they do,  and that they are nearby so again, we can walk a drop off/pick up. I suppose it could be worse.  

But it could also be better.  Remember a very long time ago when most people did a lot of their own car maintenance and repairs?  Under any car hood sat an enormous engine in an even bigger space so there was room to easily work on a car. You could practically crawl inside of it.  Most of the tools required were things that people already had in their home took kit. And  the whole combustion engine thing was pretty straight forward. If this then that.  I remember not just my dad, but the entire neighborhood of dads and teenaged boys, tinkering away with their cars in the driveway on a sunny weekend.

Nowadays, cars are much smaller, more compact in design and it's tricky to even identify the various parts, let alone reach them to attempt any repair.  Additionally cars are basically giant computers on wheels now so the tools and knowledge you need to work on them is a whole different set.  It is unusual for anyone to even try to do much on their own cars these days. HOA's prohibit it even if you had the time, tools and talent.

It's a different world I suppose. For sure it's a different era but cars are just as big a pain in the arse as they were when they were first invented.  They are, and have always been, costly, sneaky, unreliable and needy. So very needy and demanding. Like Giant Metal Babies! grumpgrumpgrump.

Ok I'm over it now.  Hopefully the price tag won't be too frightening  and soon enough we will both have ready access  in the not too distant future.  Regardless, as far as my feeligns go, whenever I can, I will stick to walking, thank you very much.  Costs me nothin' and that is my favourite price.

Whatever shall I write about today? Care to venture a guess?  If you picked Photo Safari Report you would be correct! And for those of you counting, that means I did 3, count 'em, 3 blog posts this week!  Woohoo!  Of course last week I only did 1 so I suppose I'm making up for it. Balance in the Universe ya'll, it 's a real thing.

Even though the rest of this week was sunny and gorgeous, this particular hiking day started out, once again, grey and gloomy.  Yuck.  It was also windy, sprinkly and chilly.  Great.  But Joy and I didn't let that get us down. Nope.  We decided that since we probably weren't going to get any  terrific photos on such a wet and dreary day, we may as well go for broke. We drove all the heck the way to Port Charlotte (about 45 minutes away) to  walk around Ollie's Pond.  And since it's in the area we would also hit Pennington Park.  What the heck, why not?  So this Photo Safari Report will be the Pond and Park Hike.

I have to say that we were a bit disappointed in Ollie's.  In the past it was such a lovely walk, absolutely teeming with wildlife of all sorts.  But now it's overgrown, and needs to be dredged badly. The lack of care means less of a food source which in turn means less wildlife. Very Sad.  That said, Joy and I are troopers of the first order. We didn't let that get us down. We took every photo that there was to be had before moving on.

At Pennington we fared much better. Partly because Pennington seems to be better cared for but also because, at last the sun began to emerge now and again and at least some of the photos are beautifully and naturally lit.   I did the best I could in edit with the first set, but it's really and truly not the same. You will be able to tell as you watch the slideshows which photos are from which hike. 

Onward:

Let's begin with the birds, always a good place to start:

Next up, botanicals and this time I got a few wildflowers.  It's beginning to feel a lot like spring around here:

I think it's about time to throw a few Rando's in the mix now.   Looks like I've got everything from soup to nuts, or at least squirrels to canoes:

So ends the Pond and Park Photo Safari Report.  Hope you enjoyed!  We will try to come up with something even better for next time!  See ya then!

Boomers.  Millenials. Gen X. Gen Z.  When did the different generations acquire nicknames and who assigned them?   For reasons unknown I have difficulty remembering which generation goes by which title. It's sort of like the Kardashian girls,  I'm pretty sure I know all of the names  (I've certainly read and heard them often enough) but I'm not positive which name goes with which face.

Going to take a guess here and say that Boomers is the oldest group.  Most likely a shortened version of Baby Boomer which is post WWII.  And then maybe.... well hmmm.  Millennials probably has to do with the changing millennium which would be the year 2000 so since X comes before Z then the order must be 1. Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z.  I'm fairly certain that's accurate but what happened to Y? Shouldn't there have been a Gen Y too? XYZ ...?

I am not a fan of this nicknamed generational separation thing.  I think it tends to create a bigger divide between generations than there already is.  Because there is a nice tidy handy dandy label, we can tuck everyone into their correctly aged box and assume that they, like everyone else in that box, is exactly the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There has always been a kind of gap, a line of separation, a divide between generations. But I think it's currently worse than it's ever been. I've been trying to figure out why.  I know it sounds ridiculous, but I largely blame the media.  Not only is there a tendency to sensationalize everything but since we are bombarded with media's opinions 24/7, there is no escaping it.

Naturally within each generation we share similar experiences, music, history and fashion which means, yes, we at least have first hand knowledge of those things in common. BUT our response and reactions to each of those things is different. Our ability to change and move forward is different. Our interests and personal histories are different.  We are not carbon copies of each other.  Which is hilarious thing to say because carbon copies themselves are such a thing of the past.  Just dated myself :)  I still "dial" a phone and "roll down" a car window too.  LOLOL

The reason this popped into my head today was that I keep getting these articles in my online feed like "Things Gen Z hates about Boomers", "Things Boomers do that Gen Z finds rude", "Things Gen Z finds confusing about Boomers".  Very Annoying Articles. 

I read the first few.  Why?  Because I am always interested in learning new things AND in improving myself.  I don't read them anymore tho because the articles were less informational and more inflammatory.

Apparently one of the things that we oldsters do that really bothers youngsters today is...........get ready for it........we use punctuation.  The actual quote from one of the young people with regard to our insistence on using punctuation is that it "is really offensive when I see all that unnecessary punctuation".   Interesting.  That part where punctuation is offensive to him out kind of made me chuckle.  You have a very low 'offensive' threshold my friend.  And as far as punctuation being unnecessary, there is a huge difference between, "Let's eat, Grandma" and "Let's eat Grandma".   And if you don't see the difference in those two sentences, we need to talk.

Another thing that, so I read, truly drives young people up a wall is the fact that I write my grocery list on paper instead of typing it into my phone.  Why on earth would that matter to you? I am not asking you to write your list on paper.  I'm not handing you my handwritten list on paper and asking you to shop from it.  I'm over here, quietly writing and shopping all by myself.

The other thing I remember on the list that young people hate is our clumsiness with technology.  Ok I will cop to that one.  I am not the most technologically advanced person out there. On the other hand, I think, for someone who as a child considered the idea of personal computers and cell phones to be science fiction, I do pretty well.  And I continue to learn.  On purpose!

Perhaps young people forget that someday they will be the outdated change resistant old folks who the new young generation makes fun of and has no patience with.  It's inevitable. It's happened since the beginning of time. The only difference now, as far as I can tell, is that now the generations have names.

I will say that the gross generalizations regarding those words: Gen X, Millennials and so forth, go in both directions and that's wrong too.  The assumption that ALL kids today have no work ethic is unfair. The claim that ALL Gen Z-ers are entitled and have an unrealistic expectation of life is based on a few frankly outrageous stories that the media just loves to shove at us. 

I have no doubt that some Boomers are judgmental and closed minded the same way I'm sure some Gen Z-ers are addicted to their cell phones and have crazy short attention spans.  But by the same token,  some old folksre brilliant with technology  and some young people are focused and determined. 

This isn't one size fits all. We are all individuals. We all have purpose, value, skills to share and things to learn.  I think what is needed instead of snazzy sound bite labels is more respect in both directions. Aretha sang it.  Let's live it.  Be open to change and be open to learning from everyone we meet, older and  younger.  Let's try to be patient with ourselves and each other.  And above all else let's be a little more respectful to everyone in our lives. 

 I honestly think that'll help a bit with the divide.  If nothing else, it certainly can't hurt.

This past Thursday, as per usual, Joy and I headed out to hike and we were very excited because one of our favourite hiking spots, Carlton Reserve and FINALLY re-opened!  Yayayayayay!

On the other hand, we could not ignore that fact that the lighting was terrible.  It wasn't just a matter of it being early morning. Nope it was Very cloudy and Very Grey and for the longest time, it seemed like there was some sort of barricade up in the sky refusing to allow even a single beam of light through.   Eventually, there was an occasional. random ray of sunshine that managed to fight it's way through and that helped tremendously.  By the time we were nearly done, at last we had blue sky and sunshine yayayay! From the two photos above you can see clearly that the natural lighting in the photo on the right - which was most of the hike - is seriously substandard especially compared to the photo on the left which was the tail end of the hike. Oh well.

However, since the majority of our time was spent attempting to take photos in very poor lighting conditions,  most of my shots looked a lot like this:  (and this is having attempted to edit in as much light as possible!!)

Not Good.  I believe that I deleted more photos from this hike than ever before in the history of Sam.  How many photos of indistinguishable blobs do you care to look at?  Not many is my guess. Which means this Photo Safari Report will be called,   the Silhouette Hike.

It was still a good time, please don't get me wrong.  We ended up with a few good shots, a decent number of miles on our sneakers and a few good giggles which always makes it worthwhile.  Heck if we had come home with no photos at all it still would have been a great time :)

By far and away, the coolest thing we saw was a juvenile Eagle.  I'm not sure I ever saw one before.  Honestly, I would have thought it was just some bird I'd never heard of (there are lots of those) but nope, turns out it's an eagle, just a teenager eagle:

Captured a goodly number of woodpeckers of one sort or another.  We saw at least 4 different types but I think I only got photos of 3 and only two of those came out at all. Oh well.  Still a bird so it counts!

And of course some other birdies:

Not many botanicals for you today.  But of course I"ll give you what I've got :

And............................that's it!  That's all I've got for you on this "Silhouette Hike".  Hopefully the next hike with be on a lovely sunny day and I'll have all sorts of exciting things to share!

​Stay warm, stay safe and have fun 'til we meet again!

Let's start out this week on a great note.

It's time for another Photo Safari Report and this time I'm just going to jump to the biggest and best surprise of the entire hike, this sweet little raccoon.  Look at that cutie face!!  As he (or she) was definitely my favourite part of the hike, I will call this the Cutie Face Hike! 

Joy was the first one to spot this adorable critter crossing the tail in front of us. I was off to one side looking at something different and nearly missed it entirely.  Joy softly said, "raccoon" behind me so I turned and saw something rush across the trail and into the brush.  I had to peer behind and beneath other foliage but managed to get this photo which, while not perfect, definitely explains the sensible caution of the raccoon but I think also projects how non-threatening we try very hard to be.  He (or she) felt safe enough to pause and look at us with curiosity from the safety  of the overgrowth and that makes me very happy. Our goals, always, while hiking with our cameras are first to spend time together, then to get some exercise in the great outdoors, and lastly to get some decent photos while NOT terrorizing the wildlife.

Now I'll back up to the beginning.  When we first set out upon this explore, we saw, well, not much.  The preserve itself was of course, stunning, so I had kind of accepted that this was going to be mostly a botanical hike.  Ain't nothin' wrong with that.  Here's some of the best of those sorts of photos:

Oddly, just as I was going to give up, replace the lens cap on the camera and sling the strap over my shoulder to just enjoy the hike with no more photos, we began to slowly see birds. Including one I had never seen before, (Joy had but I had not so it counts as new to me!)

Speaking of new and unexpected things that we saw, there was this giant round metal thing, looked like a short silo(?) out rusting to death in the forest beginning to be covered with leaves and vines, a turtle surfing on a large stick and several squirrels, one on the beach. Oh, and a few butterflies:

The young raccoon was absolutely the best part of the hike for me but it was all simply grand!  I guess that kind of wraps up the CutieFace Hike.  Hope you enjoyed it!  

Wish you all a Wonderful Week!

Thank you all for your lovely well wishes.  As you can see from this morning's photo of Brysco, he did very well through his surgery and is recovering remarkably quickly.  He is slowly returning back to his old self being sweet and silly and up to his old shenanigans.

You see him here at the window spying on the neighbors, one of his favourite hobbies.  He also wrestles with his brother, greets us at the door when we've been out of the house for any amount of time, inspects all packages that come into the house,  races in and out of the various kitty tunnels and cubes chasing things that are invisible to us, gently wakes me each morning by tapping me with his paw and lately, has decided that the garbage can in Tim's office is the perfect place to nap.  Cats are so weird.

It is such a relief to see him happy, healthy and not in pain anymore.  The lack of teeth don't seem to be hampering him much.  It took him a few days to figure out how to eat efficiently but he seems to have it down now and is making up for lost time with an appetite far larger than his size.

The doctor explained that the way Feline Stomatitis works is it tricks the body into believing that teeth are the enemy, a foreign object in the body and the body, naturally, does everything in its power to get rid of that foreign object.   Once the "foreign object" is gone, the problem is gone.  Luckily, his canines (the fangs) and his front teeth were unaffected so he got to keep those.

When I first brought him home after surgery, he was of course still heavily medicated and staggering around like an adorable, furry drunk.  The instant he was let out of the carrier, he made a wobbly bee-line for the litter box (such a good boy) then he stumbled his way to his food mat and sat, swaying a little,  waiting to be fed.  Because we thought ahead, we had some babyfood on hand and put down a dish of that.  He plunged into it straight away, nearly face planting and gobbled up as much as possible with his numb mouth, which is to say that he made one heck of a mess.

No worries, easily cleaned up.  He ate until he could hold no more and then, finally, greeted us each in turn.  First his brother who was sitting there patiently waiting. Then he went to Tim and purred on his ankles and happily received pets.  Finally he made his weaving way to me where he looked at me with those dinner plate sized medicated eyes and pointedly turned his back.  oh ho!  Message received.  I was the one who took him to and from the vet so he made sure I knew he was angry with me.

By the next day, most of the medication had worn off, including the gentler pain medication so he laid low most  of the time, napping, eating and healing, but he made it a point to come to me sweetly requesting a pets.  I have been forgiven.  Nice to know he doesn't hold a grudge. At  least not for long.

And now, he is, as I said, back to his old self:  goofy, loving, funny, curious and endlessly entertaining.   His brother Wyatt is delighted to have his playmate back and we are  overjoyed that he is healthy and happy once again.

Tim's office will need a new garbage can however, because Brysco as claimed the old one.

 

I wish you all a wonderful weekend!  I know that some parts of the country are getting terrible cold, ice, freezing rain and snow!    Yucky!  Please stay warm and stay safe!

I'll be back next week with a Photo  Safari Report.  Joy and I went for a terrific hike yesterday and I cannot wait to tell you all about it!

Hugs all 'round

So this is our sweet baby Brysco. One of the Kittyboy gang.  He is silly and sweet and funny and we do love him. (and his brother Wyatt to of course, but this is about Brysco specifically)

You may, or may not, recall that about 4 months ago we found out that Brysco had an inherited dental disease called Stomatitis.  People can have stomatitis too, things like canker sores are one of the indications.  And while it's painful and annoying in people it's far, far worse when it's the feline version.

He had been doing so well once he recovered from his first surgery last October and we were encouraged and relieved.  He was back to his high energy, total gooberish old self for a long time.  He put on a little weight, his fur was shiny and soft and he and Wyatt romped and played with abandon.  It was a joy to see.

And then, very recently, we noticed that he wasn't playing so much. We could tell that, even though he was still eating, he was beginning to lose weight, his fur wasn't quite as lustrous, and his energy level was decreasing just a bit.  Even though I hated to admit it, every mom-instinct in me was screaming "something is wrong".

So last Thursday back he went to the vet to see if my gut was correct. Sadly, it was. Poor baby Brysco will be having another surgery tomorrow morning.  I'm sure all will go well and he will be fine.  In the best case scenario, this will be the LAST surgery he will need. 

As a parent, and let's face it, our cats are like furry children to us, we feel terrible when they feel bad.  If they are sick, we fret and dote on them; if they are sad, we are heartbroken for them and give them extra pets and hugs; if they are in a mood, we try to jolly them out of it; and when they need surgery, we worry!  

As I say, I'm sure all will be well but it never hurts to have a little extra positive energy, or should I say, Pawsitive energy heh, coming his way. So if you have a moment and care to, please wish Brysco the very best outcome and a quick recovery.  He is a very good kitty who has been dealt a bad hand. He deserves the best we can give him.

Will keep you posted tomorrow after surgery. Thanks!

I'm Sammie come lately with the blogpost this week guy, Sorry.   I kind of over-committed myself and honestly just didn't have time to post.  Oh I suppose I could have slap-dashed something together quick and sloppy, but I prefer to put some actual thought and effort into this project.  And maybe it's good that I had to wait because, oh me oh my, have I got a Photo Safari Report for you today!

After multiple weeks of unusually cold, wet, grey weather, we finally seem to have broken through to  the kind of Florida Winter Days that we are known for. That is today, gorgeous!  Not too hot, not too cold, sunny and beautiful!  Joy and I were so happy to be out tramping in the forest yesterday for the first time in a few weeks.  We weren't sure where we would end up but happened to drive by Sleeping Turtle Preserve, a place we haven't been in nearly a year do to various weather related issues that closed the place.  But we were delighted and surprised to see that it was open for business once again!    Woohoo!  In honour of the preserve itself I will call this one the Sleeping Turtle Re-Opened Hike!

The first thing we noticed right away was the beautiful early morning light. What a stunner.  It gave us scenery like this:

Wildlife abounded!  There were times when we just stood in one spot, admiring, pointing things out to each other and snapsnapsnapping for the longest time.  It was wonderful!  The trails go through the forest and along the river so the subject matter was apt to change but all of it was wonderful.   I guess I'll begin with birds.  So Many Birds!  And a wonderful variety of them as well. Including our first Robin this year. I guess Spring is right around the corner:

Whew! That was a lot of birds!  Next up we have the critters that are not birds.  In the non-bird file we have a new entry, a River Otter!   I'm no certain who was more surprised, the otter or me when he came around a curve in the trail, fish in mouth but we both froze and starred at each other for a moment before he dove into a nearby bush to hide. I didn't mean to frighten him but  I guess I did.  I took the photo anyway even though you have to look really hard to see him.  If it helps, he didn't fully fit behind the shrub so part of him is sticking out, he face it looking right at me though, through the leaves.  Let's see if you can find him:

Perhaps you would enjoy a couple of random mostly botanicals:

So there you have it, the best parts of the Sleeping Turtle Preserve Re-Opened Hike.  Hope you enjoyed it because next week Joy and I are heading there again, to hike the other side of it!  With any luck our photos will be even better next time!

Hope you enjoyed coming along!

You know this story, right, the Tortoise and the Hare, where in the end the message is that slow and steady wins the race?  And then the question arises, are you the tortoise or the hare?  Well I am both.  Or at least in my life I have been both.

Most of my life I was the hare.  I flew through my days, zip, zam, zowie and swoosh!  Always zooming, always racing, always flying trying to fit 48 hours worth of gotta-do's into a 24 hour period of time.   That expectation requires not just multi-tasking but a lot of fast moving.  There was a time when I worked in the Oncology department of a hospital. Even though I had an official desk, I never sat at it. I was on my feet and moving all day long.   One of the doctors once teased me about my "speed walking".  It's unsafe to run through a hospital corridor (though I've done it) so I found myself walking as fast as possible which ultimately is just shy of running.

As a mom with three kids I was, as all moms are, on the go at all times, trying to be all things to all people.  As an employee I was the one who always came in early, stayed late and worked through lunch attempting to do 3 people's work.  As a wife, daughter, sister, friends, I attempted to show up for people, to be there for them, all of them, all of the time, even when it was simply impossible.  I suspect that we all feel the same way. Every day was a blur.

Is it any wonder that the first 70 years of my life feel as if they have flown by?  That time is moving way too fast?  In years past, I never felt as if I had the time to really slow down and enjoy each moment.  It was always something I was going to get to ........  someday.  Zooooom and it's gone, never to return.  It's not like there are any do-overs. There is just this one life. As far as I know, that's all we get.

Well that was my hare phase.  It served me well.  But now I have entered my tortoise era. I don't move as fast.  I don't' try to crowd as much into every day. I generally try to do only one thing at a time instead of 12.  And I must say that while I am enjoying it, it doesn't seem like the world around me appreciates me enjoying it very much.

Frankly, it's taken me quite some time to adapt to it too, so I guess I understand.  I hear little comments tho, not very nice ones.  Not just to me, understand, but to other people like me who aren't moving so fast these days.  "Get out of the way, Granny",  "If you aren't going to move it, park it and put a fence around it"  "God, you are so slow, it's driving me crazy."   "This is taking forever, I don't have time for this!"  and the worst one I heard was, "I wish I hadn't brought you along, you are so worthless"  

Wow, that was really mean!  

Sometimes it's not the words, it's the huff and the facial expression.  The roll of the eyes as someone has to walk around me; the big sigh as they have to wait an extra 5 seconds for me in a line;  the impatient foot tap (hands on hip or arms crossed) as I make my way out of their way are just as clear a message as the mean words.

So here I am today, as a Public Service, to explain why us tortoises are as slow as we are.

On reason, is because we no longer have to rush. I'm retired!  I do not have to complete 16 hours of work in 8 hours any more.  I can take my time. I can relax.  I can take breaks during any task whenever I please, as long as I please.  I can give more thought to each decision. I can and therefore I do.  It's absolutely lovely to have that freedom. I try to be courteous to those around me.  I have my thoughts collected and I am concise and clear about my questions or needs when I approach a desk, be it doctor office, DMV or check out line.  I already have my debit card in one hand and whatever else is required in the other. I'm not rooting through my purse zero hour and wondering if I have my wallet with me.   But I'm also not racing through the transaction.  I take the time to smile and be pleasant as I go.  

Some people in the line behind me have no time for me being pleasant!  Be pleasant on your own time, they seem to say, I have things to do!  sigh.

Another reason is because we making it a point, at long last in our lives, to smell the roses as they say, to live in the moment, to notice the world around us.  And those sorts of things absolutely force you to slow down.  But if I'm having and nice leisurely walk and living in the moment and smelling roses along the way, the person behind me is often so irritated they cannot help but remark on how very slow I am.  " I apologize, I am so very sorry", I say as I move over the half inch left on the sidewalk and they give me a dirty look as they plow right down the center of the pavement, huffing all the while.  sigh.

I think I personally move a little slow because I just do not have the energy level that I used to.  I will get wherever I need to be, just I need to conserve the energy I do have. I find that if I pick a pace that is comfortable for me and stick to it, I can walk for hours.  But if I try to walk too fast or trot a bit, I wear out far more quickly.  I don't know if it's an age thing or a Sam thing, but it's a true thing.  And that slower pace has some people literally shoving past me, muttering under their breathe about how useless old people are.  I may not be as tiny as I once was, but I'm also not the size of a mac truck.  There is room to go around me without snarky remarks.  Just go around.  I find this happening most often on the bike/hike trails and mostly by bicyclers. This is not an accusation, it's just a statement of fact.  sigh.

The last reason I can think of that I move slower than I used to is fear of falling.  I break now. I don't bounce like I used to.    I want to be certain that I'm not going to slip, trip or stumble.  I find that I tend to look down more, on the lookout for large sidewalk cracks, errant tree roots or other obstacles such as children and dog leashes.  Not joking about the leashes. Those retractable leashes can be a menace.  How often have I seen someone walking their dog on the sidewalk, the owner of the dog on one side of the sidewalk and the dog sniffing shrubbery on the other side with the oh so very trippable leash line between them. Not good. sigh.

Yeah, I know there are folks my age and older that are still running marathons or corporations but most of us older people are not.  Most of us have finally (it took me almost 9 years!) embraced a slightly slower pace of life and are enjoying it.

And to those of you who sneer and roll your eyes and huff and puff at us, the ones who say mean and unnecessary things, I have a few thought for you.

One day, this too will be you.  Keep that in mind.  If you are lucky enough and healthy enough to reach your august years, you too will, most likely, also slow down a bit.  And also, yes we do walk a little more slowly and carefully but it's not because we want to annoy you.  Usually it's because we are aware that we are a bit more fragile than we used to be.  And that doesn't mean we have no value any longer and should be discarded like an archaic piece of technology or electronics that is more costly to repair than to replace.

Instead it means that we are more valuable than ever.  Think Fabergé Egg rather than boiled egg, fine crystal instead of a plastic tumbler.  As the last generation to be able to read and write cursive, which at this point has become a dead language, the final group to be able do math in our heads and read analog clocks, body language and facial expressions, I can only say, we should be declared a protected species and appreciated as opposed to deprecated.

Just my thoughts. 

This is the current view out our front door. It's a chilly, grey, windy, rainy day here in Venice today.  Not what a person normally thinks of when they think of Florida.    At times it's just more drizzle than anything else and then it'll kick into high gear and absolutely pour down rain for a bit, then back off again.  Not a typical beach day for sure.  Usually, even in the winter, or perhaps especially in the dreary winter, Florida is the sunshiney respite from despicable winter days elsewhere.

Not today.

But I really should not complain. At least here it's merely rain.  There are parts of Florida that, today and tomorrow are getting the real deal winter weather.  I am absolutely serious. The current weather forecast is for some parts of Florida to have snow, sleet and ice!  Oh My Stars and Garters as my Nana would have said.  That is not just crazy, it's insane!    Florida doesn't have snow removal equipment. We have plenty of sand, come to think of it, but I'm not certain they have a way to spread it on the icey roads.  Or drivers that know how to navigate safely on said icey roads. 

However bad it actually is, it won't last long. But that will be cold comfort, literally, for those folks who live in homes with insulation not intended for true winter weather.  Did you know that some of the older homes in Florida do not have central heat?  They didn't think they would ever need it I suppose.  I mean if you were here in August, you would never imagine ever needing to put on a sweater let alone turn on the heat in your home. I get it.

I saw on the news this morning, that some adorable little town in Louisiana, somewhere west of New Orleans, had snowthis morning. Real snow. Accumulating snow!  I'm sure it's very exciting!  But equally sure that most of those Louisiana residents have doubts about their ability to drive on snow covered roads.

  Historically,  (I checked of course) the coldest weather EVER in recorded history in the entire state of Florida was minus 2 degrees!  That was in Tallahassee in 1899.  wow!  Back in 1954, Milton Florida experienced it's biggest snowfall of 4 entire inches!   I know that in snowy places, 4 inches is the same as no inches at all. But down here in the sunshine state, we believe that would be as strange as the state of Maine suddenly having thriving palm trees where all of their pine trees used to stand.  And we will categorize that under "Highly Unlikely"

I'm all wrapped up in a big oversized sweatshirt that was previously Tim's but has since mysteriously moved over to my side of the closet, with long pants, socks and closed toed shoes while I consume copious amount of hot water to stay warm.   Tim has split the difference.  He is wearing shorts but with a long-sleeved shirt, and is barefoot, crazy man that he is.

The kittyboys are split.  Wyatt loves the cooler air. I think he was a Norwegian Forest Cat in a previous life.  He will stare at me and tap at windows until I give in and open one for a short time.  He then hops up and sits in the open window with rain pelting him and the wind ruffling his fur with his head up, his eyes closed and his nose twitching, smelling all those good outside smells.  Brysco on the other hand, moves from cozy warm nest to cozy warm nest through the day.  We make sure that there are enough places for him with soft blankets that he can burrow into and we drop by occasionally to give a pet or two as he closes his eyes in toasty warm bliss.

Obviously, we won't be doing the noonwalk today.  I have no problem taking off my hearing aids and having a nice stroll through a gentle warm spring rain, but this rain is neither warm nor gentle. So I have to fill my day with inside things like the ironing - the pile is currently on the kitchen table where I cannot ignore it. I suppose I could just curl up and read all day. Or alternately read and nap, that's a winner idea!  Or maybe bake something first so I can read, munch AND nap.  That sounds like the best idea so far.

I made oatmeal for Tim's breakfast today. A nice healthy hearty hot breakfast, was my thought.  It was the slow cooking, constantly stirring on the stove top type of oatmeal that takes about a half hour. Despite the fact that I stirred until I thought my arm was going to fall off, the milk still scorched a bit and afterwards I had to look up how to get milk scorch off a pan.  (it worked by the way). All of which took longer than I anticipated.   I should have finished this post a few hours ago and be half way through the ironing by now! At first I was kind of annoyed by being "behind" and then I remembered that I'm retired! I don't have deadlines anymore!!  teehee  

Anyway, whatever the weather is where you are, hope you are safe, hope you are happy, hope you are healthy

I'm going to decide what sort of cookie to bake, just in case the spirit moves me in that direction.  Then I'll roast a chicken.  Somewhere in between the two, maybe my nap :)

I believe in making the best use of a situation.  I think I've got this rainy day thing down.

That's me, geared up and ready to hike yesterday.  Please note the layers and the sweat jacket.  it's chilly here right now.  Nothing compared to other parts of the country, I understand that for sure. But cooler than normal for us. So I decided that layers would be the best way to go. I thought I was so smart. Hah!  

I was right about layers but wrong about the number of them.  Joy was dressed similarly, clearly having the same general idea.  We were still cold.  It wasn't just the temperature, it was about the cold damp wind blowing across the water and straight through our bones.  It was a struggle sometimes to get a good photo because the wind was pushing me around and sometimes because my hands were shivering too much to hold the camera steady.  

Still we persevered, took multiple shots of the same thing with the desperate hope that at least one would come out good and ultimately, it was a pretty awesome hike in spite of it all.  Resulting, I hope, in a decent Photo Safari Report which I'm going to call the Shivery Fingers Hike because they were a tremblin' with cold!

The first category of pictures will be of wild creatures eating because I've never before gotten this many of that sort of thing.  Now remember, nature does what nature does and sometimes nature isn't pretty.  That whole "circle of life" thing sometimes is kind of sad from the prey's perspective.  You can skip this section if you are too tender hearted. I completely understand.

​

How about some wildlife that isn't dining?

Or maybe you would prefer some scenery and botanicals?  I have a few:

It was very grey and gloomy, cold and shivery, damp and dark but a great return to our weekly hikes after about a month off. Our cheeks were pink, our noses runny and our fingers achy with the cold, but we would do it again in a heartbeat.  In fact, we will most likely be back at it again next week though the weather report is not much different.  We will make an effort to dress warmer tho.  

Hope you enjoyed the Shivery Fingers Hike. We are glad to be back at it and hope to have some even better photos for you next time!

​Have a terrific weekend!

This is what we are left with out of a dish set that was either six or eight place settings.  It was purchased so long ago, I honestly do not remember. I do know that it was very inexpensive.   At the end of my first marriage, when I started over with nothing except me and the kids, I was always looking for a really good deal to set up our new home.  This set of dishes, which I found at a store called Caldor (similar to a Walmart) certainly qualified.   I do not remember what the price tag was, but I know it was cheap.  I found them on an endcap.  I believe it was the last box, they were on sale and while they are probably the most boring dishes every created on the planet, I did not care.  They could have been pink with orange dots and I still would have bought them.

But that was thirty something years ago (please don't make me do the math  - I think it was 35) so I suppose it's not surprising that there are a few chips, some discoloration here and there and a few less dishes than we started out with.   All right, to be fair, it's more than a few less dishes.  We are down to 2 bowls, 4 small plates and 5 large ones.   And I am the one responsible.  

I don't mean "I" as in I declare myself responsible in a kindly intended way of accepting responsibility for what my children may have done.  Mostly because they absolutely did not do it.  I mean "I" because literally I am the one who broke every dang dish that is no longer in this set.

And recently in less than 24 hours, I broke two more.  Dang it all.  

One broke very cleanly in two separate pieces as if it were two perfect puzzle pieces  that were supposed to do that.  It was a bowl. And all I did was take it out of the cupboard and put it on the counter. Seriously, that's all I did.  I didn't slam it on the counter, I didn't throw it on the counter, I didn't even set it heavily on the counter with force.  I merely, opened the door, removed the bowl and gently set it on the counter whereupon I watched as it broke into two even pieces.  One side fell to the left, one side fell to the right as I watched. What the actual hell was that about?  And now we are down to two bowls.

The other dish I broke in far more spectacular fashion.  I was putting dishes away rather than taking them out to begin with.  I had two small plates, one in each hand,  I put the dish in  my left hand on top of the stack first, then went to put the dish in my right hand on the stack and, and, well I don't actually know what happened.  First it was in my hand and then it wasn't. I suppose I dropped it, but I don't remember dropping it.  Just in my hand and then not in my hand.

The plate, again a very small plate only 7 inches across, hit the tile and exploded with a sound that, in a cowboy movie would have caused at least half the town residents to have expired violently.  Tim immediately called out from the other room, "Are you ok?"  'Yes" I answered with a  bit of a snarl, "I'm fine". And then I muttered under my breath, "the dish, not so much".  I was just so annoyed with myself. But I had to set that aside because the kitties were showing great interest and that isn't a good combo.

I'm not sure what it is about crockery or glass, but when it breaks usually, there were bits and pieces far beyond where logic dictates.  I begin to understand why aliens build their space craft in the shape of saucers.  Apparently, it is the most aerodynamic shape possible.  I found bits of that dish not just in the immediate area, but in places that make no sense whatsoever.

There were so very many pieces and in so many different shapes and sizes that it began to seem as though, if I were to painstakingly reconstruct that dish from those bits, the dish would end up much larger than it originally was.  Which is, of course, impossible.

I started, as one does, with the biggest pieces, then the smaller ones that were in my immediate vicinity. One disposed of, I got a broom and began sweeping the area. Over and over I swept the exact same area and with each go ' round, picked up more teensy shards. Then I got a spray bottle of cleaner and some paper towels to be certain I got every little bitty crumb.  Eventually it seemed as if I had gotten it all.  HAH!  

As soon as I put away the spray cleaner and broom, I saw more small pieces under the kitchen table. Sigh.  I got everything back out and cleaned some more.  Then I spied a few tiny bits near the kittyboys food and water dishes.  Ratz.  Fearing that eensy microbits of ceramics may have jumped into their dishes, I dumped them, washed, dried and refilled them.  And while I was at it, completely swept and washed that general area. I did not want them to accidentally ingest any of it. That would be very bad.  But finally, I thought, finally it's done. I put away the broom and the cleaning stuff.  Surely, this time, I was truly done.  Silly me.

As I walked away, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a doggone piece of broken dish in the front hall.  How?  How?  I hauled all of the cleaning paraphernalia  back out and cleaned more.  I swept, I sprayed, I washed, I wiped.  Once finished, I stood, hands on hips and surveyed the area.  First by the sink where I initially bobbled the dish, then the area around the table, next the kitty food area, and lastly the front hall.  At last, "Finished". I said to myself out loud, feeling quite accomplished.  Hilarious.

I put everything away once more and then walked to the bathroom where I found yet more pieces!  ARGH!  Is there a wormhole in my kitchen somewhere that scoots things into other places in the house?  How does a dish dropped in the kitchen by the sink end up with pieces around corners?  It's a small house but it's not THAT small. The bathroom and the entry are in two completely different hallways!

Well of course I cleaned it up. But this time before I put things away, I prowled through the entire house starring at the floor looking for evidence of yet more breakage.  It took two rounds of peering intensely at the floor as I slowly walked through before I was satisfied that I had, most likely, gotten all of it.  And even so warned Tim went he walked in barefoot as always, to be careful.

And as far as the rapidly diminishing number of bowls and plates in the house,  right now, we'll just keep living with it. As long as there are dishes enough for us, we are good.  And when there aren't enough?  Well I suppose at that point we will have to actually do something about it.  and I promise you, that when the day finally does come that the dishes are replaced, I will be looking for something less breakable.  Perhaps something made of steel?  Concrete?  Plastic? Paper? I understand that diamonds are very sturdy.....

It's very likely that you already saw this photo of me that was taken at Joy and Bob's wedding last month.  It is a rare thing: a photo of me that I actually like.  I admit that it is exceptionally flattering.  I don't know if the photographer did some clever editing or if it was just exceptional lighting or a particularly good angle or some combination of all of those elements but it's a decent picture.

The thing you really do not see in this picture tho is how dang grey/silver/white my hair is finally getting!  It's been quite some time since I did a hair update so perhaps today shall be the day!

I'd say that the best description of the current colour of most of my hair would be brown, specifically mouse brown. Very ordinary, very boring.  Not a pretty colour really but my hair is healthy so I suppose that's something. For now it's enough. 

Especially since, as every day passes, I see more and more, of the pretty grey/silver/white all the time.  Well grey isn't pretty. It really isn't. It's a flat, dull cold colour. Bah.  The silver and white, however is gorgeous, shiny, bright and light reflecting!  I love it and am eager for it to completely take over.  Seriously, I am so excited thinking ahead to the day when I am sporting a full head of silvery white disco ball hair!  My hair however, seems to have other plans.

Here, you can see what I mean:  (these photos were taken yesterday)

There is most definitely some salt and pepper going on at the top but mostly it's just boring rodent brown, ho hum.   It 's not all that much different than the last time I posted a hair update.  Or at least that's what it seems at first glance.

But if you look underneath my hair, if I part it differently,  an entirely different story emerges . Especially on the right half of my scalp. Check this out:

Isn't that gorgeous?  Shiny, silky sparkly silver and white!!!  It's looks like Christmas Decorations!  Tinsel Hair!  I honestly love it!  I try now and again, to specifically part my hair so that this is what shows, but my hair resists. My head insists upon a center part and gives me tremendous pushback when I try to do anything else.

The left side of my head, underneath, is not as pretty. And isn't that strange that the right side and the left side would be different?  Gosh I'm strange! Here is the underneath part of the left side by comparison:

The sparklies are in there, you can see them quite clearly, but it's not nearly as densely populated as the right side.  Bizarre.  Is that normal?  Is that how it works for everybody?  I don't know much about hair.

I do know that as my hair becomes more grey/silver/white, some colours no longer suit me.  There was a time, specifically when I was very blonde, that very dark colours such a black, burgandy, grey and navy blue were dynamite on me.  A huge portion of my wardrobe were these sort of wintry dark colours, particularly navy and black.  Of course I really struggle to see the difference between the two colours anyway so to me, it's pretty much the same thing. Black absolutely washes me out, makes me look grey.  Grey makes me look nearly invisible. Which on occasion suits me, to be fair.

All of this leaves me starting over at my advanced age, trying to find out what colours do look good on me now.  It's certainly not the old jewel toned colour palate.  Yikes!  This is gonna take some time and some trial and error.  I will refer to it as research and I think I am going to have to do a great deal of it to figure it all out. I suppose we are never too old to learn new things, try new things, change things up!

Still, for me anyway, there is a certain lack of confidence while clothes shopping now.  Before, for a zillion or so years, I could practically sleepwalk through a shopping trip.  I knew the shape, the general size (women's clothes are woefully inconsistent size-wise) and absofreakinlutely knew the colours to grab.  Nowadays, nope.  The colour thing has me stymied.

I know that lighter and brighter serves me better now but it's the specific shade of lighter and brighter.  For example, I was never really a "pink" girlie but now I find that certain shades of pink do  seem to flatter me.  But not every shade of pink. And unfortunately the one that is most common out there, the Barbie sort of pink, is not a good one.

But I'll  keep looking and trying and learning and hopefully, by the time my hair is completely silver/white I will have figured it out.  In the meantime, of course I am still wearing the clothes I already have. I'm far too practical to get rid of perfectly good clothes that fit just because the colour is no longer flattering on me.  Hopefully by the time the hair is completely turned, I will have worn those old clothes out entirely and I can start fresh.

Something else to look forward to.  It's good to have a goal.

​In the meantime, have a great weekend everybody!