Happy New Year's Eve!

I still haven't made any resolutions. I'm considering making very big ones - since I'm going to break them all in January why not go for the gold? I can resolve to be taller, devote my life to world peace, to outdo Donald Trump, to look more like Christy Brinkly and less like Courtney Love pre-rehab, to be kinder to Claw and stop hoping a bear gets her and to stop being so sarcastic all the time. I feel better, don't you? And I might as well cut to the chase and not do any of those things. Glad that's over with. Anywhoo, those things in the first picture that I posted awhile ago - I was talking to a nurse that was born and raised in that area and she told me what they were. They're charcoal ovens -you make charcoal in them! They were built the early 1900's and they used them to make the charcoal for fuel for the trains that were going long distances so they didn't run out of fuel. The retired coalminers worked them and dragged the wood from the surrounding forest in to make the charcoal. She said the poor, especially around the time of depression would bring rocks and pile them on top to heat them, then bring them back to thier house to use for heat. I have to admit, I never would've guessed. She said if I ever get back to that area and want to look at them closer to make sure I wear boots because over the years the ground has gotten marshy. I'm getting new tires today, not looking foward to the bill but it's got to be done. I have to say when I get my next car it'll probably be another CRV, sometimes I'm amazed at the places it can go. I had to get up a driveway yesterday - straight up and covered in ice, I can't imagine it in January. We went slinging the other day on Jackson's birthday, I took our road  too fast and fishtailed at the top of hill. Jackson was a little upset and announced he would like to be older than 16 someday. Honestly, even though I pointed out it wasn't much of a drop off by WV standards, he still told his father. Rat fink.

Cruising

Well, the year is winding down, I suppose it's resolution time. I try not to make them, first of all if you're going to lose weight, take a college course, be nicer to the dog, stop hanging out in bars and picking up strange men, etc - either you're going to do it or not and swearing  to it on the first of the year is just silly. And more importantly, it just makes me look bad in January anyhow. But from force of habit I tend to do it despite knowing better. We aren't doing anything per se, out of all the holidays this one is my least favorite. When I go out I wish I was home and when I'm home I think I'm missing something. So I just go to bed and that solves the whole thing. The temp here has warmed up - it was in the 40's yesterday which made the outlying area just lovely. Slogging up a hill on ice is bad enough, but at least if you fall it's just water. Now it's mud, and not just any mud, oh no. It's Special West Virginia Mud. Anyone who lives in a clay-based area knows what I'm talking about. When the water hits this stuff it has the consistancy of pig poo and is twice as slick as ice. Having fallen in it once this year I'm not eager to do it again and I'm much better at keeping my balance, even in the most precarious of yards. One of the other nurses (who grew up here) told me when it's wet, NEVER walk in the driveway, walk next to it (the grass and rocks give you traction). And that advice has served me well, not to mention the fear of getting covered in that crap again. The other interesting thing about this area is because of the mountains, every town gets different weather. We got rain for instance yesterday but when I called to schedule an appointment with a patient 20 miles away she said she hoped I had four wheel drive because of all the snow! I'm getting new tires on Saturday, mine are a few years old and with all the driving I do I can't afford to let them go too long. Sigh, I'd better get started I suppose.

Birthday!

Yep, my youngest is 16 today, how strange is that? He doesn't seem 16 nor does he appear old enough to graduate in a couple of years. He has decided not to do the laser tag thing, we'll be doing the tradition mall and dinner thing. Becky is having a party from what I understand for her birthday in a couple of weeks and when I pointed out he could've had one he shook his head NO, didn't think he would like that. Whatever, it's his birthday and this is what he wants. He's actually very social, but things like birthdays and holidays he just likes it quiet so I'll leave him alone. I'm off again today and Kevin said yesterday we are off AGAIN on Monday for New Year - I think they're trying to kill me. I farmed out some of my jobs yesterday, there's only so much that can be done in 8 hours. David took down all the decorations yesterday, the tree we had was very nice but dried out very quickly. If you touched it the branches snapped and since the cats spent most of thier free time touching it, there was quite a mess going on. Not to mention the fire hazard part of it. I just find the decorations a bit sad after the holidays so we usually have them down pretty quick. Our computer seems to be working ok today. David got that Vonage phone system they advertise on TV for $9.95 a month since we all know the wars we've waged with Frontier Phone Company who's slogan should be Go Ahead, Make A Long Distance Call, We Dare You. In case you're wondering - Vonage sucks. You don't just hook it up and that's it. Nope. You need a wireless router. And another phone since it's just long distance.Then you need to register and download thier software. When David tried to register it, it refused to take it. You can't call them. So he emailed. And emailed. And emailed. The registration number on the bottom was wrong so they registered him from their end. Then it STILL didn't work. Then we lost our internet connection so I removed everyone and thier brother's program and we still didn't have a connection. Jackson went in and manually restored the settings, so everything seems alright and all the equipment is sitting in a pile at the moment, waiting to be repackaged and returned. Good Riddance!

Guess Who's Almost 16

And he's not sure what he wants to do for his birthday. Becky has suggested Laser Tag, but he's torn between that and what he usually does which is go shopping to spend some of his Christmas and birthday money, dinner out and a cake at home. Being born right after Xmas and right before New Years can be rather tough - no one's around for your birthday and if they are, they're usually busy. So he's gotten used to having small quiet birthdays. And then we get into what am I going to get him. Shopping for him is a pro and con deal - everything is on sale, but there's not much left to chose from. I went to Hot Topic that was having a 50% off sale on thier pants, but it was fairly picked over and what was left was either XS or XXL.  Some of the things he asked for aren't out yet video game wise (I already have to return one), so he'll just end up with more money. At least I'm off for it. Work is going to rough this week - they gave me yesterday off, but didn't reduce my patient load, so I'm going to be running for the rest of the week. AND I think next week I get another day "off" for the New Year. Eek.

Dog In Blue Poncho

So, how was everyone's holiday? Ours was good, but quiet. Everyone got what they wanted pretty much, with the exception of Dante's Inferno for Jackson. I should've looked at it a little closer but just glanced at the cover before I bought it. After all, Dante's Inferno is Dante's Inferno, right? Wrong. Apparently two surfers from California can rewrite the above said classic, set it in modern day Los Angeles, change the main character into a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks, turn the whole thing into a mess and peddle it as the real deal. Fortunately, Beuwolf and The Merchants Of Venice were what they were suppposed to be. But Jackson's birthday is on Wednesday and the good thing about that is whatever he didn't get for Christmas we can get him for his birthday. I'm off today, but have about 3 hours of paperwork to catch up on, yuck. And we also have to go shopping for the birthday on Wednesday which I'm also off for. I finally finished the poncho and will ship it off when I get a chance. I think for the next few projects they will be small - hats, etc. I have a pattern for a Japanese war helmet that you can knit which is hilarious and I think Jackson would like so that might be next on the boards. I also am going to try to make a dog coat for a friend of mine. The weather here has cooled off a bit and it looks like it'll rain again. It rained all Christmas morning and then the sun came out big time. We ended up eating at a chinese restaurant for Christmas as we usually do, but everyone has thier traditions, don't they?

Whoo Hoo! It's Finally Here!

As you can see, Vincent doesn't even try to pretend to be good - I've chased him and Mr. Lee off of the tree several times, but they either don't get it or simply don't care. I'm fairly certain they don't care. Yesterday was very warm - in the 60's so I spent a portion of Christmas Eve cleaning out my car and then David and I washed them both. David and I took Jackson shopping yesterday, Becky gave him an extra present which made it necessary for him to buy her one and he also had to buy for her parents. We had told Jackson he could go over Becky's since we usually don't do too much for Christmas Eve and he had been invited. I had David stop at McDonalds, Jackson is on hyperdrive again and I didn't want him to scare anyone. He supposed he could eat "something" and ordered a 10 piece, large shake, large fries, asked if he could have TWO ten piece (NO) and then ate David's fries too. When he got to Becky's her brother Bobby took them out for lunch at Garfield's so he got ANOTHER lunch which he said was ok since he was still hungry. We're going out for early dinner today and Jackson might go over Becky's again, her parents like him and said he can come over all weekend. He's been on a roll lately - full of theory and conversation. A few days ago he was telling me about some calendar that says the apocolypse is going to occur in 2012 and when I said someone is always predicting the end of the world he then said this calendar had predicted the death of a religious leader and the pope had indeed died that year. I told him given the amount of religious leaders in the world that prediction was like shooting fish in a barrel then he said well, it said a CHRISTIAN leader. I then demanded he produce the above said calendar and even went so far to say I thought it didn't exist. At which he threw his hands up in the air and said "Fine! Go to hell then and see if I care!". In other words, while I'm sitting in the firey underworld I am NOT to come crying to Jackson about it! LOL, on that note, Merry Christmas everyone.

We got a call from Adam this morning for Christmas. He's got tons of stuff going on as usual so it was nice to hear from him, but he's a bit down. I think a lot of it can be attributed to The Christmas Curse, which has been our usual for years. I don't think it's a true curse that everything goes ka-fluie all December, but with holidays adding to the mix it gets a bit more magnified. David and I have developed a sense of humor about it and just laugh and go on, knowing it will all resolve itself in January. I'm off for Monday, but paid for it all week. With the holidays the doctors were discharging patients home that probably should've waited a few more days, so as you can see from the pictures I've posted today, I did quite a bit of driving yesterday. My GPS has become a part of my life, I don't know if I could do the job as well without it. And my boss has come to rely on it too - since I have one I think I can zip around faster since I never have to use a map and hunt for anyone, so I think I've given the impression  no address is a problem . Which it's not - I'm sometimes amazed at what it can find! Jackson had a good time with Becky's family and it was her Dads family he went to see. So he was able to meet Becky's aunts and Uncles. We have a little bit of shopping to do and will be heading out early - David said the roads were all backed up yesterday with last minute shoppers.

TGIAC!!

That would stand for Thank Goodness It's Almost Christmas! I'm currently  way behind on my christmasy stuff to do, but I still have a little time. Vincent has not only been attacking the tree, but has taught Mr. Lee the fine art of Ornament Smacking - who says you can't teach an old cat new tricks? My schedule at work continues to seesaw back and forth, yesterday I started off with one job. When I got there my phone rang and another patient was having a problem so I needed to see her - the fortunate part was she lives very close to patient #1 so I was able to zip over there and get her straight. Then I had a late job and was pottering around the office doing paper work, plotting to leave a little early and hightail it to Michaels AND BUY ALL THE CLEARANCE YARN FOR MYSELF - and got an admission. So I was running then since I didn't want to be late for the job I already had scheduled and on my way back got today changed about 3 times. All compounded by the fact the doctors will tell the patients things that I will be doing and won't say anything to me which means me back at the office playing phone tag to verify exactly what the doctor said. Yikes! Jackson is off from school today and is going with Becky's family to Beckly which is about 150 miles from here. The reason being is Becky' family meets there as a halfway mark and they all exchange presents and have lunch - that's kind of a neat idea, isn't it? The weather is supposed to warm up into the 40's today as per the Crack Weather Team. I especially loved them this week - they predicted warmer temps so I put my down coat to the dry cleaners as it was rather filthy - the temps immediately dropped so there I was, in the outlands of WV in a wool dress coat. The moment I got it back of course the tempetures started to rise. I should get moving, I'm dropping Jackson off in Sabraton at 7:30 and then zipping off to No Man's Land for a bit to get my 1st job in early so I can get to Michaels' and you know......

All Is Well In The Kingdom Again

It took a couple of days, but I am over What Ever It Was, thank goodness. David and I are still trying to get Christmas shopping done, we're going out to a restaurant for the big day as we always have - probably chinese. We had Jackson's list with us, the usual video games as is every year. The only problem I have with video games is they're so expensive and even if you buy a couple hundred dollars worth, it sort of looks like a big nothing under the tree. When the boys were little it was so much easier to look impressive. All thier gifts were entirely constructed of lightweight plastic and most on a rather grand scale - anyone remember the Thunder Cat Lair that you could sit in? Or the Tiny Tikes Pedal Helicopter?Now I spend 4 times as much and you can fit thier  entire christmas list in a milkcrate with room to spare. Jackson also had a book on the list, Dante's Inferno which in case you need a copy is located in the poetry section and not fiction and literature. After we picked up Jackson from school we went to exit 7 to do a bit more shopping and I popped into Michaels and bought 10 skeins of Tutu yarn in winter white BECAUSE it was on clearance ($2.09 from  $6.99 - yes we need a cart over here!!). I only bought 10 because The Yarn Hater was with me with his sidekick The Tattletale (DAD! SHE HAS YARN IN THAT BAG, DAD!!!.....)so I had to resist laying waste to the shelves before someone else noticed the clearance signs. I have a couple of jobs over that way on Friday but I have to weigh whether I can quick shop for yarn with labs in the car. Hmm. The temp has stayed in the 20's all day, the Crack Weather Team DID say it would go up to the 40's tomorrow, but they were announcing Sunny Skies as the snowflakes were blowing by the windows today so my faith in their abilities is not a lot.

Oh No, The Queen Is Sick!

Yes, it's true. I am sick. I came down with Whatever It Is yesterday, did a brief stint of denial as we were on our way to church and I had clothes on and everything, but we did have to turn back. I spent the day in bed being just miserable but being of the medical profession I'm only allowed to suffer in bed until 6 am Monday. Then I can suffer at work. I'm not throwing up or anything - just a bad head cold I suppose and I'm tired and achy. Jackson is over Becky's - he's back on schedule for the restricted visitation. David overbought on the coldcuts last week so he told Jackson to have some for lunch. Jackson informed me Sunday afternoon we were completely out - there'd been about 4lbs  in there, so "lunch" apparently was an extended engagement. David questioned if it was possible for anyone to eat that many coldcuts (not to mention the loaf of bread was almost gone,) but if there's a 15 year old boy around, entire herds can disappear. Jackson mention the roast beef was especially good, it must've been because there had been a pound and a half of it!! He did leave a sad bit of pastrami hiding in the corner so we had just enough to cover lunch today at school. He does have a lunch card which I think is nifty - you're not allowed to use cash to buy your lunch as school which cuts down on having money stolen or the temptation to remove it from your smaller classmates - but refuses to use it because he likes sandwiches from home. Lucky me.

Eight More Days!!

If I hear one more stupid news show do an interview on holiday depression I will run down to the station and go postal all over thier weenie asses. They actually had a "checklist" this morning with questions such as "Do you feel devoid of joy?" I felt like calling them and asking if they all felt devoid of brains. This was of course followed by amazingly stupid advice from a leading psychiatrist who apparently specializes in Holiday Disorders.  This can only be outdone by the local stations giving Cold Weather Tips such as "wear a hat" and "warm up your car", all delivered with the same gravity as a report on the War On Terror.  ANYWHOO, we got the presents mailed off today so that's done. I have most of the Christmas cards done too, but ran short so I'll have to pick up more tomorrow. While we were at Barnes and Noble's I found a couple of knitting books so David bought them for me for a present. When we got home I went up and sat on my bed MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS paging through the above said books when David (aka The Grinch) came in and took the books away stating they were for Christmas purposes only. I have to admit I did indeed feel devoid of joy, but he took them away anyhow. I personally felt that since I wasn't knitting anything out of  either of the books it didn't count but some people can be very unreasonable. I'm making good progress on the poncho which turned out to be a major bonus. Since I'm knitting it in the round it didnt fit too well on my circular needles so when we went to Sam's Club we stopped at the Nest which is a very high end knitting shop. I can't even afford to look at the yarn in there - things such as chinese ribbon silk ($19 a skein) or hand dyed Alpaca ($24.95) but I can afford to look at some of the needles. But not the Lantern Moon hand made from Cambodia ($22 a pair). So I bought TWO pairs of Addi Turbo circular needles, they're like a Porshe version of knitting needles and they had the sets with the 40" cord span, Bonus!! They're german stainless steel which means the yarn just slides right off them as you go so you can knit faster. That would be the Turbo part. David's going to move the birdfeeder tomorrow to the french door in the living room. Ever since Vincent saw the birds sitting in it he's been parking himself on the sill right below it which as you can imagine, defeats the purpose entirely. Not to mention it's supposed to be a Birdfeeder, not a Catfeeder.

On The Road Again

As you can see, I was a travelling girl today! I probably did over 100 miles for 4 patients, I think I average about 60 to 80 a day easily. I've learned to turn down cups of coffee, I know what bears do in the woods but nurses should not!! I actually enjoy all the driving, most of my travels take me down the back roads and no matter how many times I drive it, there's something new to see every day. The thing that frustrates me is not being about to take all the pictures I'd love to, I drive by dozens of great pictures and there's no where to safely stop. Most of these roads aren't too well travelled, but that in itself is a problem since everyone flies down them. And the names! I've REALLY been on Easy Street, it's right next to Nice St. There's Burnt Cabin, Mouse Run, Sugar Run Road, Breezy Ridge (VERY aptly named I might add), Bloody Run, Turkey Knob, and of course tons of Runs and Hollows. Too bad I have all those patients inbetween! My patient that had surgery came out alright, I went to see him today and he looks great. I was so relieved to see him sitting up and his family will be having a great Christmas I'm sure. I'm still trying to finish up for Christmas, but enough is enough. Saturday everything I bought gets packed and sent  and if anyone doesn't like what I sent them they can come here and take it up with me. If you need my address - Go straight to the middle of nowhere.  Turn right at the Boondocks driving straight through the town you can spit across. I'm on the left.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

David took this picture today, apparently we had a visitor to the birdfeeder, it will probably be the last. David said Vincent jumped up on the chaise, crouched and then flung his entire body at the birdfeeder - David said it was hilarious watching him slide down the glass, but I think it might put the local bird population off. The weather has been back and forth, the Crack Weather Team has yet to get it right - but I'm sure if they keep changing the forecast enough times they'll be correct eventually. I had a hairy day at work, my patient's port broke so I spent a fair amount of time in the ER with them. I'm insanely grateful I caught it in time - the whole thing could've been far worse than it was. As it is, I'm just hoping he makes it through the surgery alright. We're getting on top of the Christmas stuff - I can't believe it's only ten days away! Vincent has been bothering the tree already, the other two could care less. Jackson is at BECKY'S again, bet everyone is surprised. Apparently she has WAY better parents than he does.

Snow Watch Advisory In Effect For Your Area

David has cancelled his trip to NJ this week, the weather reports are predicting snowstorms for the rest of this week into next week and with it getting close to Christmas he didn't want to take any chances. I think Ray would prefer doing his kitchen in the spring too, although I'm sure he's a bit disappointed about not seeing David. Jackson and Becky will be keeping thier increased time for the week since it was already promised and quite frankly, I just can't listen to it. I'm doing Christmas cards today and will be starting to get everything ready to be sent off - but things are easier without the class hanging over my head. Work has been getting better - I actually got complimented on my paperwork and Tammy has been busy farming out my visits so there have been no more late nights. I think most of my jobs are closer in for the rest of the week and I seem to be working mostly PA lately. We put up the Christmas tree this week, I was so excited and it is really nice. Vincent has been leaving it alone so far, as have the other two cats. David bought them a birdfeeder for Christmas and put it on the window in the computer room, but so far no takers. Of course it would probably help if the cats stopped parading right below it.

Bah Humbug On The Snow

Vincent completely HATES the snow, I let him out yesterday and he sat on the sidewalk, ears back and fur up as if he was being attacked. He came back in after about 3 minutes,out of sorts and sat on the windowsill looking disgusted at the white stuff. It's going to be a long winter for the cat. We didn't go to church yesterday, it had started snowing and no one was in the mood so we did some christmas shopping instead. I made turkey and mashed potatoes for dinner. David put a half teaspoon of cranberry sauce on Jackson's plate and he responded by acting like David had put a dead bug on it. David made him keep it "for decoration" and Jackson came back a few minutes later looking for more. He refused to admit he liked it, it was "ok he guessed" and proceeded to eat the rest of the it. I'm still working on the poncho, Copper did his modeling duites but it's alway a dangerous thing when it's halfway done. He sat for the pictures and then went to lay down which stretched it out and almost pulling it off the needles (I'm knitting it in the round as opposed to two sections). Jackson had to hold the needles while I peeled him out of it. That made him so excited he stole David's hat and bounced around the livingroom play growling to get David to chase him. I have a full week ahead of me at work - the snow on Friday pushed some patients into this week, and I had an infusion that didn't get her medication last week so I have to do it this week. At least I'm done with class.

Let The Wait Begin

I took my final Saturday - and it DID take almost 5 hours. I finished in 4 hours and 45 minutes and when I left, more than half of the class was still there. I was a bit surprised, usually they give you alot of excess time and by a couple of hours usually most of the class is done. But this one not only did they give 5 hours, but if you took a break they would tack that time onto the end. I didn't take any, I just wanted it done. As to how I did I honestly don't think I passed, the past month I've barely had time to breath, let alone study - not to mention this test is broken down into 3 sections and if you don't pass all of them you fail. I won't hear the results for 4 - 6 weeks which in this day and age I think is ridiculous,even the nursing boards you get the results in a week or so. But the good thing is I can take the exam over again without having to repeat the class or pay again and in the meantime, I'm employed. David got our funace working again, the repairman had called back Friday night and told Jackson if he came he didn't have the parts, it would cost A HUNDRED DOLLARS just for him to show up,etc...so Jacks cancelled him since he didn't want someone who would cost over a month of allowances to show up and do nothing. Of course then Jackson called me a little panicked since he usually isn't in charge of these decisons (David had been out buying a kerosene heater) but I told him he made the right one. David couldn't get ahold of the repairman the next morning so he called the plumbing and heating store and they told him that it was probably just the ignitor and they happened to have that part. So instead of it costing us hundreds of dollars in emergency call, it ended up costing us $38. Now I have to catch up on paperwork, housework, christmas shopping, and of course knitting. David is heading off for NJ this week to help Ray build a kitchen so Jackson and I will be on our own.

Here's Mud In Your Eye

One of my patients owns a llama and I occasionally try to take pictures of it. However, it would like to spit at me so getting a good picture is fairly impossible. It's one of the things I probably don't want for Christmas. I have my final today and very small chance of passing it - I've had no time to study at all - last night was another late night at work with me arriving exausted at 6:30pm. And to add to it, the furnace decided to quit (perfect timing - Friday evening) so David has the shop propane and we used a kerosene heater for the night. The tempeture is co-operating by dropping into the 20's overnight. Hopefully we can find someone to come this weekend. David thinks it might be the igniter that's malfunctioning. Needless to say I didn't even bother trying to study, that may sound fatalistic but I don't think at this point an extra hour is going to make a difference one way or the other. We get the results in 4 to 6 weeks and I can retake it without having to pay an extra fee so whatever. I'm fending them off from work - they were after me all day yesterday to work the weekend but I told them NO, even the patients that live near me. I fail to see where proximetry makes a client my sole responsibility. I've been running daily scans on our computer - that virus thing has me a bit freaked out, just the idea that someone can invade your computer and take your personal information is more than a bit creepy.

On The First Day Of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me...

A lit up squirrel in a locust tree is what your true love would give you in WV. Doesn't the squirrel look nice though? The cats are fighting this morning which is very annoying. It's really just one cat (Vincent) harrassing another (Claw), he's been trapping her under various objects and furniture all morning and she retalitates by growling and hissing until I can't even stand it anymore. I spent 4 hours yesterday studying - this just seems to drag on and on. Tuesday was a disaster, the class I missed last week was the one where they went over information for the final exam that I didn't know we were having since I missed that class. So I went in thinking we would be doing a review for the big certification test on Saturday and instead ended up taking a 3 hour final cold. Work is starting to straighten out a little bit, they got an LPN per diem to work Preston county which helps me a lot so now work is simply overwhelming instead of drowning. Jackson is flunking again, I'm getting very tired of this and we're trying to figure out what to do. Taking things away doesn't seem to help and unless I call all of his teachers daily, I have no idea what work he's not doing. I think he's just going to have to do an hour mandatory at the kitchen table and I don't care if he stares at his feet and hums. We've got so much going on I just don't have time to fool around with him anymore. I heard from Adam, he will definately not be coming home this winter and might try for the spring. I'm pretty disappointed but there's not much I can do. I"m sending off his christmas present today, it proabaly won't get there in time, but I just haven't had time to do anything. The house is a disaster and the decorating very sporadic. Bah. Humbug.

I Smell Winter

Around here the snow  is a very strange and selective thing - you can get a foot in one area and a dusting in another, Preston county ALWAYS gets whomped no matter what what. We just have a little snow left here in Maidsville, the ice is far more annoying in my opinion. I finally got some studying in on Sunday, I got up early and studied for a few hours while Jackson was still asleep and David was elsewhere. We went to church on Sunday - the first time in a few weeks - and when I went out to start the car I found it encased in ice so I ended up spending a bit of time chipping it free. After that we went to Sam's Club and when we got back I got back to the books. Today was run,run,run - I started at 7:30 am and finished at 5pm so I'm a bit too spent to concentrate. My boss reduced my workload for tomorrow and Wednesday I'm hitting the books again. I will be so glad when this whole thing is over.Our computer still works well, it actually works better but now we are Paranoid Bunnies. Some security warning keeps coming up that an unidentified publisher would like to run lo31.exe from C:/WINDOWS/system32 and we keep hitting cancel on it since A)we don't know what it is and B)system 32 is the file that was modified that caused all the problems in the first place.

Sunset Brought To You Courtesy Of West Virginia

Doesn't that look really tropical? It sort of was, give or take 70 degrees or so ( mostly on the "take" side of things). ANYWHOO, the temp has plummeted into the 20's and we've discovered the house doesn't heat very evenly, especially Jackson's Dungeon Abode but he insists on hanging in there. I've made up the two guest rooms just in case he finds it difficult to break ice some evening, worst comes to worst he'll just be a very Hardy And Hale person by spring. We're trying to talk Big Dave into a space heater but he's being Cheap and a bit Surly, even pulling out the old "When I was young..." routine which is pure nonsense. His mother tends to keep her house between "sauna" and "lightly sauteed" all of the time,even occasionally turning on the heat in June which has left him with the constitution of a dandalion. Things here are not great - I have my certification test next Saturday and everything's still crazy at work, just constant running topped off with all the paperwork I have to catch up on. I managed to finish alot of my paper work and then a patient who lives about 3 miles from me had a crisis. I'm not on call but strangely all the on call nurses seem to be aware of my proximetry to the patient as this is the second time it's happened. At least the nurse on call this weekend was nice enough to ask instead of like the other one who faked a visit so the agency would call me. But even though the patient is close it was still almost 3 hours out of my day plus the paper work. I did get some studying in but right now I'm totally done for the day and any attempt at studying just bounces right off. Everyone's present will probably be late, I did a little bit of decorating (i.e. The Squirrel) but other than that I'm not bothering til after this test. David's work has been picking up, sigh, of course!! at the MOST inconvienient time!(He's been out working all day as a matter of fact)

Back In Business

Arrgh! We were told by Best Buy our computer would probably be done by Monday - "worst case scenario Thursday" - worst case scenario it is. When I called on Tuesday they'd finished some of it but I was told that "now we have to battle spyware and viruses and it depends on how much of fight they give us" as if we were talking knights and dragons, I guess they're not called the "geek squad" for nothing. So here are the belated Thanksgiving pictures and the last one is of Copper modeling the latest project I've started. It's another poncho since I'm on a sweater break. The zoo did ok while we were gone, they seemed to be fine with the free-range kennel concept except Charger apparently didn't do well at night and ended up sleeping in the owner's Aunt's bed. She also came and fed the cats while we were gone so everyone was was a little upset, but nothing too bad. Kim, Stephen, Celia, Lorenzo and Loki the dog arrived on Saturday to visit. Loki is supposed to be an italian greyhound but is more like a mix between a pirhana and Collin Farrell (he kept insisting on humping everyone's butt). Eventually he calmed down much to Copper's relief. I made two stews for dinner, vegetarian and beef and we had a really good - but way too short time - visiting and catching up. And no, I didn't get any pictures, I meant to but never got around to it.  They left for Boston at 4:30 the next morning and after that we just did stuff. Work continues to get crazy - we've been picking up new patients right and left. I ended up missing class last night - I had an admission who's address is about 3 miles from me so I should have been done early. I got no answer at her house so I finally called the place that had discharged her and - oops! - did they forget to tell me she was staying with her brother - 40 MILES AWAY? They also sort of forgot to tell me she needed labs which meant I had to drive all the way back to Morgantown to drop them off. Consequently I didn't get home til 6:30 and there was no way I was going to drive to Fairmont and be almost 2 hours late for a 3 hour class. I hope this straightens out soon is all I can say.

Greetings From Pennsylvania

Sorry about the lack of picture, I am a guest on my sister's computer.We left Wednesday after work - I ran through my visits and got done at 3:30. We made really good time,we were here around 8pm or so, David only carped for the first 150 miles or so - in his world NO ONE travels at night and he would have preferred everyone up at 4 am - yuck. We got to see the redecorated house - they did a great job and you half expect Martha to appear out of the kitchen - minus the prison garb of course.Diane cooked a way too big Thanksgiving dinner and it was great - I especially liked the whipped sweet potatoes and could've eaten a potful of those. It's fun seeing them and visiting, I think Jackson and I will visit in January when all the good clearance sales are going on. Here Black Friday is very big and I think even thinking about shopping isn't a good idea. Janet and Diane were supposed to have gotten up and gone to Walmart at 5am this morning, but the temp outside is about 10 and thier bedroom door is still shut, so I don't think they went anyhwere. I probably will be off the computer for the rest of the week into Wednesday, David brought our computer to Best Buy the we left and we did indeed have a very bad virus in our computer. I can't wait to get back and see the dogs and cats, I hope they're all ok!

 

Getting Ready For The Holidays

Our computer is probably headed for the shop - and OF COURSE it's the holidays. A few days ago I turned on the computer and recieved a message that system 32 had been modified. I said something to David and he said "oh that" - apparently that message had been coming up for a week and he just clicked it off before preceeding. That would explain all the mysterious goings on - AOL is completely kaput (I have to access it through MSN) and had to actually restore the computer this morning just to get to my email. But we'll get to it at some point, we leaving for my sister's for Thanksgiving and it snowed last night - not too much but enough and the temp has dropped a good bit also. I hope it's warmer in Pennsylvania!!

The Real Estate Game

West Virginia takes a bit of getting used to I suppose. David has developed an intense dislike of mobile homes, especially since the leaves are all gone, pretty much exposing everything we couldn't see before. We now, for instance, have a most excellent view of the mobile home park on the hilltop directly across from ours. I don't mind it myself, I actually find it interesting at how much more I can see and find myself driving slower down the road being a major Nosy Parker. I love the dilapidated old buildings, the singlewides with the chimney pipes coming out of them, it's all neat to me. I think the most annoying thing about these roads are no shoulders most of the time which makes it difficult - if not impossible on occasion - to take the pictures I really want to. Sometimes if I can see down the road I'll just stop and take the pictures out the window, but most of the time I can't because of all the winding road it's too dangerous. Work has gotten more stressful - my manager leaves at the end of the week and no one has said what my responsibilities will be. The whole thing just sucks.

Who Says We Have No Class

Claw sits like this all the time - she looks pretty bizarre, doesn't she? She likes to keep that big white tummy of hers super clean. Vincent likes to attack her when she's sitting like that because she goes completely bugshit, not to mention it peeves Claw to no end. I also  told Jackson I'll stop referring to her as a "Bear Snack" he finds that upsetting.  I've been having trouble with my pictures today, I've gotten the message I have a stackoverflow on line 216 or something, I have no idea. If it doesnt resolve itself  I'll just do what I always do which is A) turn the computer on and off a few times, B) poke around a bit without actually doing anything to see if I can jostle something loose or C) ignore it until it becomes an actual annoyance or problem. My face is a problem today too, I bought a bar of face soap and when I did, I had a feeling I shouldn't, but couldn't remember why. It's probably because this particular soap is fine for about two days and then the skin will suddenly disappear from my face leaving behind a tight, red itchy thing that hurts if you touch it. My face is so red I could be a substitute stop sign at the moment, but if I remember correctly, that should resolve itself by tomorrow. David's finished spackling the dining room and we are picking out a color. I considered red but the room would be way too dark so it's going to be a cream color. We are of course keeping the plastic chandelier - I think David would like me to stop telling everyone it's plastic but I find it hilarious. It's technically lucite I think and you can't tell unless you  touch it - I'm sure it was expensive when it was new.I finished knitting a hat to match the poncho THAT NO ONE WANTS YET - if no one volunteers I'll just keep adding accessories to it I guess. We're going out to Sam's Club in Clarksburg and skipping church this week, I've very excited. Not about Sam's club. About the AC Moore right next to it!! Whoo hoo can ya feel the yarn!!

A Hazy Shade Of Winter

Well, lets see. First it was cold. Then it was in the 70's which would have been far more enjoyable without the thunderstorms and wind I might add. The winds were so high they ripped off part of the barn which David was going to remove anyhow so I guess it saved him a bit of work. David had cleared out the garage after the last windstorm in case we needed to put the cars in. The trees around here are all over 25 feet high and with all the rain soaking the ground we're a bit leery of them falling over. After a day or so of this the tempeture dropped 40 or so degrees and that freaked everyone out, especially our Crack Weather Team that was frantically trying to pretend they'd known all about this and were busy taking the "high 50's with occasional scattered showers" off the tv and replacing it with "a low of 19, tornado watch and dangerous thunderstorm lines".  I had class last night and she let us out EARLY - wow! Knock me over with a feather. Jackson is still on restriction but is working on his grades. David's been busy - he's been getting more calls on his ad and in between that continues to work on the house. He sheetrocked and spackled the dining room - I just couldn't stand it anymore with the dark Bradybunch paneling - and hopefully we'll be painting it this weekend. Next week I work til Wednesday and then we're off to Janet's and Diane's for Thanksgiving, and then back here on Friday, Kim, Stephen and family will be here Saturday and they're off to Boston on Sunday so we have a full week planned. Yesterday in Kingwood I stopped a local store and bought a whole bunch of stuff - it was pretty neat because it was local so they had buckwheat flour, sassafrass drops, etc. But there was one item I couldn't figure out what it was - pork pudding???

Just For The Record.

1) The ACLU has never opposed military prayer (ACLU by the way, is an acronym for American Civil Liberties Union - you know the Freedom of speech people)

2) Your cell phone number IS not about to be handed over to telemarketers The cell phone companies are compiling a 411 book, so if you want you can just register with the Do Not Call list just in case.

3) There is NO secret phone number that your college age daughter can call that will immediately get in touch with the state police when a mass murderer is following her.

4) Woman who wear ponytails are no more likely to be raped than anyone else

5) If Swiffer WetJet is toxic to pets, I REALLY could've used one last week when it rained and the dogs hopped all over the couch full of mud

6) There is no band of car thieves that put stickynotes on your rear view mirror in the hopes that you'll get out and they can all hop in and zip off.

7)There is no missing child by the name of Penny Brown

8) No matter how many people you annoy with that email Bill Gates/McDonalds/Abercrombie and Fitch will NEVER send you money or a coupon.

Pass it on.

Finished!

I finally finished my latest project, a poncho and even Copper agrees it came out much better than my last attempt. Of course it's homeless (it has a possible home), as are most of my projects so feel free to volunteer! Yesterday we were out driving around after dropping off Jackson to Becky's(he gets one day on the weekend) so I was taking pictures of the old victorians in town. Most have been renovated and are painted the historic colors and are so far beyond our budget it's mindboggling. Not that David would live there anyhow - like most of the post-civil war towns the houses are close to the road and about 3 feet apart. But they are fun to look at. After shopping we stopped at Petco to buy Mr. Lee a new toy, she's been bored lately and has been darting around to amuse herself and making everyone crazy. I bought her a laser light - somewhere between move 2 and 3 we lost the one she had - and she's been harassing everyone ever since to play with it. You would think she's almost 16 now and would just want to lay around being an old cat, but I don't  think that'll ever happen. She's sleeps a bit more and tires out more easily, but other than that she's the same cat she's always been. I think when she goes, we're going to be lost without her. Oh - while I'm thinking of it. Adam didn't recieve most of his birthday gifts, he said all he got was our present, David's parents and a gift from Henry. If anyone sent him a check and it's been cashed - let me know because ADAM didn't  cash it.

How Now Brown Cow

I have a bit of a mystery going on in my car - I was eating poptarts on the way out to Kingwood this morning(YES I KNOW I shouldn't be eating them but they do have 8 vitamins and minerals...). I only ate one and put the other on the front seat....and now I can't find it. I looked under the seats, the car mats,down the side of the consol - no pop no tart. I shouldn't be that concerned - after all it's not like they go bad and will start to smell. I think they have a half life of 50 years or so. Since I can't find it I'm designating it "emergency rations" so hopefully if I end up in a Donner-like situation it will suddenly appear and save the day. Jackson is under partial house arrest - he got 3 D's, one E, one B and one A so he is restricted Becky-wise. She was over today though since it was a holiday and the alternative is to have him moping all day and making everyone crazy. David has fired up the fireplace which also happens to be in what serves as Jackson's bedroom these days and it's working fine. We have tons of wood from the dead trees so that'll help with the heating.

Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Images...

...or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Hmm. Unless thou art a Catlicker and attend Our Lady Of The Loopholes, then you can put those bad boys all over, can't ya? The best thing about catholics they are SO easy - when they send me those silly letters for donations I send em back and write they can buy thier own alter boy - it's not my fault if they broke the ones they have! Speaking of flinging dirt, it rained like crazy for the past two days and due to all the digging, we are awash in mud from one end to the other. (excellent segueway, wasn't it?). I'm probably going to have to rent a steam cleaner for the carpets but we're waiting until everything dries up a bit. I'm busy hating my medical coding teacher, she once again held the class over, at 20 after 9 last night she pretended she didn't realize the class had ended 20 minutes ago and wanted to know if we wanted to continue! Considering it's already a 3 hour class it was a big resounding NO and she got really beaned and assigned a monster chapter which no one could possibly finish.(especially no one who is currently playing on the computer). And I recieved yet ANOTHER false email today concerning ACLU making a stink about marines praying. CRAP. Here is the link in case anyone else got it -  unlike others I ACTUALLY READ THEM BEFORE I SEND THEM ACLU Objects to Marines Praying - Netlore Archive

There Is No Road Not Travelled

I know this because I have travelled it. I've driven on cobblestones, gravel, mud, CEE-ment, what was left of the tar, rocks, grates, and Barely There. I do love the back roads so I took them all the way to a patient's house yesterday. She and her husband were laughing, especially when they found I had been on Turkey Hollow Rd. I told them it took my teeth about 5 minutes to stop vibrating after I got out of the car. And of course, being a glutton for punishment, I took them all the way back. You have to go slower, but I've found you get to see a lot of stuff that you would've missed - like the covered bridge or the steel pipe entrance to Grinnage. I saw goats, pigs, ducks, log cabins. So, it made for a fun afternoon. Our pal Jackson is in trouble for skipping homeroom - apparently that Becky person told him it was ok to do that. Strangely it was not ok with the school so David called and now he will be attending home room. In all fairness, the guidence counseller did tell him that they're cracking down on it this year, in the past they've just ignored it. We're waiting for his report card next week so we'll see if he'll be a free man or a prisoner.

A Room With A View.

David has been getting a few more responses to his ad in the paper, he has another estimate to give this week. Yesterday he did a small moving job for a woman who had called on Saturday, grousing all the way to Bruceton Mills that "stray cats, stray people - they all seem to find me". The woman lived down the road from us and all of her things fit in the back of the truck and her car. David loaded up the truck,drove 25 miles to Bruceton Mills, carried the furniture including a heavy sleeper sofa up a narrow stairway to a 2nd floor apartment - and when he got in the truck to leave I started laughing. He asked me what was so funny and I said "You didn't charge her a dime, did you?".  That was ok, I wouldn't have taken money from her either. Her mom had just passed away so she was moving in with her niece, she herself has just been diagnosed with liver cancer and had no one to help move what little she had. We did luck out - about 5 minutes after we left the hail started pounding down, followed by torrents of rain so at least none of her stuff got ruined. Today David is continuing with the water main and he's still a busy bee with the room in the back - when it's done it's going to be spectacular and is already letting in tons of light. The only thing is the bigger hot tub doesn't fit in there. I was teasing David and told him to do what everyone else does in WV - get a little plywood and tarpaper and just tack an "addition" on - just like they do on the trailers around here.

Don't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

Copper has been needier than usual the past week, he and Charger were at the vet last week so there's nothing new going on as far as I know - but he's been tagging behind everyone 24/7 and doing a bit more whining than usual. It's hard not to feel sorry for him - with Adam gone and Jackson growing up, he no longer has his boys to hang out with and pay attention to him. So he's at loose ends and some days there's nothing we can do to make him feel any better. We've been playing with him and David takes him outside with him when he goes out, but there's a certain sadness that we just can't touch. I suppose it's a part of life, as much as David and I talk about not getting anymore animals and the zoo passing on, as we all know it's one thing to talk about it and whole other ball of wax when it happens. Mr. Lee, Copper and Charger are all geriatric with Claw not far behind, after all these years with a house full of pets I don't know if we can handle not having  dogs and cats around. As much of a pain in the butt Copper can be, there's a  certain comfort in having a dog following you around, watching tv with you, or just wandering the yard while you do other stuff. I think when they pass on, it will be very hard to resist the temptation to run out and replace them right away. And this year, both dogs have been showing signs of slowing down, Copper has some fairly large tumors which are worrisome, but not treatable. So far he doesn't seem to notice and they're not giving him any physical problems so we're just leaving him alone until they do. Last night he woke us up around 1 am with the most mournful howling, we have no idea why - he wasn't in any pain or distress. So perhaps he was dreaming of what no longer is.

The Hole Nine Yards

I've been bugging David about the water main for the past couple of weeks.David was considering letting the water main thing go until spring - as far as we know it's been leaking all along and it not that bad of a leak. But all I've been able to envision is it blowing mid-February and having to deal with that in the frozen ground. The driveway leak has been there, but since David repaired the one in the lower field I think it's been putting alot of pressure on the leak under the driveway.  This week the leak has gotten noticibly worse, instead of the pothole birdbath it's been running a bit. And it's not repairable there, the driveway was originally cement and been tarred over - we would have to dig up the whole drive just to find it. So yesterday he rented a special ditch digger and has dug for the water line. He didn't thankfully hit the gas line, that would've been bad I think. So over the weekend he'll be laying the line and reconnecting it midway in the lower pasture to where we know it's ok. The other wierd thing of the week is we seem to be suffering from a small insect infestation (picture 5)- of Lady Bugs!! When we moved in here (and the other house in WV) we've found dead ones in the window sills so I think it must be an annual thing and they're not icky so I'm not sure what to do. I certainly don't want to kill them and they seem to be only on the living room ceiling by the picture window so I'll leave them alone. And the last picture is of Charger, The Poo Eater. I warned Jackson and David not to kiss him on the lips since both of the litterpans had been cleaned - and I hadn't done it. (for the record Jackson and David both claim that kissing Charger on the lips is pretty far down on thier list of Things To Do, it's actually on thier list of Things That Will Never Happen)

Enough Of This Sunset Crap Already

It's hard NOT to take pictures of the sky around here, I guess with the mountains and the wide open spaces it looks a lot different than where I'm from and it's hard not to be impressed. Class continues on - the teacher we have would like to turn it into a 4 hour class I think - last night at 8;55pm she asked if we wouldn't mind staying "for a little while longer" to go over the next two chapters! 90% of the class did mind so we'll be doing it on Tuesday. The last fifteen minutes of class normally stretch into hours (or so it seems) without adding on to it, especially since it's an adult class and we've already put in 8 or more hours at work already. She's done this before and it's a never ending source of annoyance. David's getting ready to rent a digger for our water main, he's been looking for someone to do it but has been unsucessful. He's not going to dig up the whole thing, just from the pasture up and will connect it there since we know that half doesn't leak. I don' t care how he does it, just as long as it gets done, I'm tired of the Eternal Birdbath in the driveway.  Report cards come out next week and Jackson has been been preparing us for his english grade. First we heard about how unfair the teacher is. Then how much she doesn't like him. Then how many people don't pass her class and how no one likes her. Hmmm. I'm guessing we won't be seeing that A this semster. And for a little extra stress at work - my manager resigned yesterday which kind of leaves me swinging in the breeze. I've got no idea what's going to happen but am planning on just riding it out and seeing what happens. This whole thing just smells like a whole mess.

Another Day Another Dollar

But at least the weather is nice - we're in the high 60's to low 70's for the next few days which is A-OK with David. The leaves continue to turn but are now falling, so I'm sure winter is right around the corner. Everyone finally has thier power on - after that nasty storm last week some people didn't get thier power back on for a week! I had my midterm last week and did better than I thought I would - I got an 86 which was a relief. I was peeking at some of the grades around me and I did better than some of the people that are already billing in an office. We're continuing to make plans to go to Janet's and Diane's, I made reservations at a kennel for the dogs where they will have a couch and TV (I'm not kidding) and will be roaming around with all the other dogs. They're also going to come check on the cats at the house - 3 days of this all for $90, considering what this would've cost me on LI I'm happy with that number. David continues to work on the new room, the hot tub will be staying outside as it's too huge to come in and would take up almost half. I'll put pictures up tomorrow. I'm more than half finished with the poncho I'm making and it's coming out better than the last one I made.

The Thrill Of The Hunt

Vincent has been mixing it up with Mr. Lee for the past couple of days, but in his defense, she started it. Actually they play all the time, hiding and jumping out at each other, chasing each other around the house. Vincent was shut up in the house for Halloween as was Claw so he was a bit put out to say the least. We've always kept the cats in for Halloween as you never know and I would feel terrible if anything happened to any of them. We only had 5 trick or treaters - none of whom was the cookie girl who is obviously not dumb enough to go to the people she ripped off. Jackson went over Becky's house and handed out candy all afternoon, she lives in a populated area so they get more trick or treater than we do. David's new business of small jobs seems to be going pretty good, he started at one house and while there, was hired by the neighbor across the road. So he's going to keep at it and keep the ad in the paper for awhile longer.

Score!

They're closing the Sam's Club here in Fairmont and moving to Clarksburg, so David and I went yesterday since it's closer for us.. The building was partway emptied out and they were selling thier display items, one of which we'd been looking at before, but at $600 was too much for our budget. Well, there sat the entertainment center - for $100!! It was a bit nicked here and there, but a $500 reduction,who cares? So, what's everyone doing for Halloween? Jackson is going over Becky's house, his costume involves his suit and sunglasses, I forget what he told me. David will be handing out candy and laying in wait for that rotten little girl that took our money for cookies for the Katrina Relief Fund and never brought them. David said if he sees her he's going to snatch her candy bag and he'll be even. Only kidding, but I'm sure he'll say something to her. That'll teach us for paying upfront. I got another 'warning email" this morning, as everyone knows I HATE them. This one was that tells you Swiffer WetJet has a chemical similar to antifreeze in it and causes liver failure in pets. DOES ANYONE READ THIS CRAP BEFORE THEY SEND IT OUT?? Why on earth would a company sell a product that kills pets? And do people REALLY think there's a bunch of dead pets laying all over the US and no one's noticed? This website http://urbanlegends.about.com/  is the best, you go there, type in what the email is about in search and it'll come back with the current circulating email and tell you if it's true and when it started. And for the record - there is NO antifreeze in Swiffer Wetjet, why would there be???

Calm After The Storm

David is still cleaning up the mess left from the snowstorm we had during the week. We lost a big tree behind the house (about 20,25 feet) so he's been sawing it up all week. As soon as it dries out around here, we're having a bonfire! and I can't wait. Everyone has them all the time, you're allowed to burn everything with the exception of spouses and couches. And they've really cracked down on the couch burning, all of the college students were paying thier fines this week so they were being peevishly broadcasted on the local news since a large number of them feel that being unable to torch thier sofas is a civil rights violation. ANYHOW, I had a midterm exam this week, no, I don't know how I did and refuse to even guess at it. Since it's a certification course the only grade that matters is the one I get on the certification test so this was more of a test run than anything else. I've been doing my usual amount of driving but now discovering more back roads and I can pretty much navigate around without ever seeing a major highway most of the day. The one thing I really love about all the back country roads this time of year is the leaves, I'm trying to enjoy them while I can. David is busy plugging away at his new room he's building and is starting to look at jobs. Since they're such a pain in the ass about testing not to mention finding any help around here, his new tact is to only do small jobs and his ad has gotten a fairly good response so maybe that's the way to go for now.

Let It Snow??

This is what greeted me this morning - snow. And not just a light freakish dusting, snow SNOW - at times blizzardy sort of stuff. School was delayed 2 hours, and then completely cancelled. Of course it had rained for two days beforehand and it was a wet snow so it caused plenty of damage. We didn't lose power - thank goodness, but most of Morgantown did last night so a lot of people were late to work this morning and pretty chilly. Of course, being a visit nurse made my day interesting. On my way to the lab from the 1st job I saw the cars stopping in pairs on both sides of the roads, it looked like friends stopping  when they see each other driving by. But it was one side of the road telling the other to turn around because there were live wires on the road and to follow them to route 68. I told the two cars next and they told the ones after that, it's an interesting system that works around here.  They closed route 7 down for the whole day due to downed power lines and trees so I ended up taking Snake Hill Road out to Masontown (pictures 5 - 8 ) - it wasn't too bad if you went slow. The trees were so heavy with snow they were bent down enough to brush the top of my car in some spots, it was so pretty though! The trees are still yellow and red and covered with snow they looked amazing.  I managed to get out to all my patients, the last one said "I didn't think you were coming, but I'm really glad you're here!" I was glad I made it too.

Take Your Son To Prison Day

Yesterday was the trip to Moundsville Penetentiary - it's far from us, about 100 miles but as you can see from the pictures, was worth the trip. David went with us so we took turns with the driving. The prison was built in 1866, one of the oldest in the country so the old parts are very cool. The original prison was built by the inmates themselves and in the newer parts, there's artwork all over the walls - all painted by murderers and rapists.  Jackson and Becky really enjoyed the whole thing, usually neither of them will say boo in public, but the two of them were asking all sorts of questions and volunteering to try out the equipment. The guide was a former guard of the prison (it closed it's doors in 1996 due to the supreme court deciding the 5 x 7 cells were inhumane, but really - considering the people they housed weren't too concerned with human rights, it's just not understandable). The cell that I took pictures of Jackson in at one time had 3 to a cell which I can't imagine. They had a display room with all the homemade weapons, a letter from Charles Manson asking to be transferred there (he grew up about 8 miles from the prison) and the electric chair which was used only 9 times. They hung them right up to the 1950's - I think there were 94 hangings and did you know that the gallows are exactly 13 feet high? One foot for the judge and one for each juror. It was a good trip because not only was it right up Jackson's alley but it was very historic. The only thing that was not good was the weather which was very cold, damp and rainy - being in a prison  constructed soley of metal and stone was not the warmest place to be. They stop running the tours in November due to that - the guide said some tour groups have tried to tour in January but they rarely make it through more than half as the only thing that's heated is the lobby where you start the tour and the display room where you end. After we went to Young's Homesyle Cafeteria where we saw everyone from the tour there, the food was pretty good and then we headed home. Even though it was a long drive, I was very glad we went.

Hail To The Doritos!

That's not really a giant dorito chip in his hand, I think it's a tri-corner hat. That's a very strange statue which is on top of the court building in Waynesburg, painted silver since it's obviously not quite tacky enough for some people. I think the next things I'll be taking pictures of are the local bars around here which can be a bit odd, to say the least. I might try to get a picture of the Hunting Club in Masontown which is pretty hysterical. I thought it was abandoned until I saw all the guys in camo. I've been having a hard time getting through my jobs with all the autumn leaves to distract me, not to mention almost getting bonked down the mountain by a logging truck who didn't see me parked on the edge of the drop off. A little inadvertant Thelma and Louise action I suppose. They're also doing alot of road work so you sit and wait, I wish they would get another Stop/Slow sign guy out in Holbrook - the one they have now is super disgusting. He spits. A lot. I was the 2nd car back the other day so I got quite the view of Mr. Yicky hawking loogies every 3 seconds. After about 5 minutes I felt like hopping and out and yelling DO YOU HAVE SOME SORT BRAIN DISORDER THAT MAKES YOU DO THAT?? but I refrained as he didn't look overly friendly either. Oh well, at least thier fixing the roads this year, last year they didn't have any money in the state budget so all they could afford was a bunch of guys to stare at the road. Now we can afford guys that can stare and spit, whoo hoo living large!

Some Outdoors Is Greater Than Others

The leaves are finally getting spectacular, all over now. It's not all over though, some towns I drive through are still green and others are a riot of color. I'm going out to Holbrook tomorrow and plan on taking a lot of pictures there. The mountains are getting really nifty looking with all the oranges, reds and yellows. They're predicting some wild weather though and it was pretty windy today so I hope we don't have one big storm and instant bare trees. David's latest project is the hot tub room - he's actually rebuilding it with recovered lumber so it's pretty cheap, just very messy.  We're busy just doing stuff lately, work has been very busy but I think it's about to fall off, I'm discharging a pile of patients this week and things are pretty quiet on the western front which has me a bit worried. And I have plenty to worry about so I dont need any help from outside sources.This weekend I'm finally putting away my winter clothes which David got down the other day, all that and the temps in the 70's today. It's not going to last though according to the weather, they're expecting a cold front. And what's the gas prices in your neck of the woods? Today I saw it as low as $2.45!

Man Bites Dog

Copper is still neurotic about his feet, therefore we play with them whenever the opportunity presents itself. He gets all wierd and paranoid and that just encourages everyone,doesn't it? David's done with the living room, he painted it with the grey paint we picked up at a sidewalk sale ($3 for 5 gallons) to prime it and we liked the color so much we're leaving it. The french doors are a huge improvement, the windows on the house are north and south instead of east and west so it makes the house dark. We're painting the dining room a cream color because that room is REALLY dark and not helped at all by the Brady Bunch style dark paneling. David's started ripping apart the hot tub room off the kitchen next, the next set of french doors will go there, the old tub is OUT and the new tub will be in. He's taking out all the big windows as it's all rotted out around them from them being improperly installed. He found a very large wasp's nest - there are no wasps in it - it was probably there before they closed in the porch. If anyone wants it, let me know. His next project is the church - they've hired him to start renovation which will work out nicely for us - it's pretty close and he can still work on the house. Church this week was a big meeting, we are now in committees as the sudden resignation of our church leader has really left us floundering. No one still knows why they resigned, both the leader and her husband are refusing to talk to any church members, so perhaps we'll never know. I appear to be permenently in charge of the coffee since I signed up for it twice. David's volunteered for the yardwork and I'll be doing Growth and Membership (there are only 3 people in my committee but that's better than the last time when there was 1).(the 1 would be me.)

Cow Jam

I had a weekend visit to do yesterday morning out in Pa so I headed out at 7:40am only to find myself sitting in cow traffic. The cows had gotten out again and were rather happily standing in the road trying to figure out thier next move. Eating and Pooping is fairly high on thier list so that would be what they were doing. I don't think thier mother knew they were out as they appeared to have been out for quite a while. Most of the fences around here are original and havent' been repaired so they're a hodge podge of sticks, wire, boards, etc - when the cows decide to see if the grass is greener on the other side they just lean on it and there they are, on the other side. I took the backroads all the way out to my patient's house, I passed a huge coal mine with equally huge piles of coal, all the mines here are in high production now, I don't know if it's because winter is coming or with gas prices everyone is switching to coal. I tried to take a picture of one of the little bridges I have to go over(#5), it's hard to see but the actual bridge is so rickety it's hilarious. I don't worry about it falling - it's apparently been there forever and will be there long after I'm gone. Not to mention if the road slides, they just pop a sign up and that fixes it. When we lived on Grafton rd, the bridge had collapsed on one side so they put up a sign and safety cones and although they fixed it the following year, I always wondered why the other side didn't collapse or better yet - why no one but me worried about it. My favorite sign of the week is "Falling Rocks" - like how are you NOT supposed to worrry about that??

My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard...

There appears to be a lot of cows out lately, more than usual. I'm not sure if there's something going on in Cow World or perhaps this is the time of year they migrate. The leaves are finally turning colors and all of my older patients are predicting a hard winter using various wives tales as proof that it will happen. We'll see. I've been busy as usual with work and school and David has been working hard renovating the house. He's scheduled to take the contractor's test in a few weeks which is a major pain in the butt - what a scam. Apparently it doen'st matter who takes it in the house - I can take it for him!! And if I wasn't so busy with everything else I would consider it. Adam spent his birthday out at sea again but will be back in port soon I think. He's thinking of coming home in January or so but will be running all over. The tempeture has dropped this week and David has got to get the winter clothes out, I'm starting to look a little silly in my cotton skirt and flipflops. Vincent has really been bad lately, David relieved him of another chipmunk yesterday and made him go in the house - he said the chipmunk seemed to like that idea too.

Road Trip

I went to a wound care seminar yesterday in Johnstown, Pa. My co-worker was going too so we rode together - I drove - 115 miles to where they were holding it. I at least had a little heads up on the fact we were signed up for it, Melissa wasn't told until Monday so she was a bit not too enthusiastic, especially given the 230 mile round trip.We were also offered a hotel room due to the distance but no one was too interested in spending the night in Johnstown, Pa The Hot Spot Of Pennsylvania, Home Of The Strip Malls And Fast Food Restaurants Every Two Feet as tempting as that is.  Since we live down the road from one of the largest teaching hospitals who must have seminars all the time, it didn't make too much sense, but we got paid for the day and I get milage so whatever. We met at Sheetz at 5:45am and arrived a bit after 8 - which would have been perfect had our boss given us the right address. She did not. The hospital was hosting it, but the actual seminar was being held at the local college 20 minutes away, 30 if you didn't know where you were going. My GPS decided to fritz out but we had good directions so we made it there by 9am and I don't think we missed much. We got out a bit early which was good but I didn't get to take any pictures of the fall leaves because my camera had dead batteries. And then when we got back to town I-79 was back up - both sides as there had been multiple accidents so we had to take the scenic route to Melissa's car - it just wasn't my day.

A Couple More Pictures

Becky's mom took WAY more pictures than we did, but was nice enough to make us a set - they came out pretty good. They both looked so nice, but of course today they're back to Festive Funeral Wear. The leaves are turning more colors but I think I'll wait until next week to do any more picture taking since some of the trees are taking thier own sweet time about things. It seems like summer just dragged on and on and on, but now October is a third of the way over!  I've got to figure out where Mylan Park is too - they're having a big hot air ballon festival there next week which I'll be attending. This week church was not too much fun - our lay leader and her husband abruptly handed in thier resignation with no notice sending the entire church into a tailspin since no one, including the board saw this one coming. I'm in charge of the coffee again this week - Mark was laughing when he saw the sign up board (mine was the only name on it) and cheerfully pointed out the next 3 years appeared to be open...... I finished up early today so I'm home at 3 - but tomorrow I have an all day seminar in Pittsburgh which means I'm out of the house at 6 am. Yuck -o - la.

Homecoming.

I picked up Becky's corsage yesterday - I wish I'd taken a picture of it because it came out very pretty - red roses with  black lace. Jackson was very impressed. Jackson refused to get dressed until it was almost time to go and left with tie in hand. No one in the house knows how to tie a tie so Becky's dad was in charge of that detail. I took pictures of Jackson before we left but when we got to Beckys' she wasnt even dressed - I'd forgotten I was dropping him off early. Becky's mother is going to have two sets made so I'll have them later on in the week. As I was almost home I passed David who rolled down his window to tell me he was going to Becky's house because Jackson had just called to see if Dad could bring the ticket he forgot. I gave David the camera so we did manage to get one picture. Becky's mom was impressed I think that Jackson brought a corsage so we scored brownie points in that department. Jackson said the dance was ok. I think the rain might stop today - the temps have dropped into the 50's at night and then we warm up to shorts weather during the day guarenteeing you'll never be dressed right. I've got to go to a seminar in Pittsburgh on Tuesday which would be more fun if I didn't have to be there at 7am (it's a two hour drive).

Under Construction

David has been busy for the past week remodeling the livingroom, he bought the french doors from the pawn shop believe it or not. They were in perfect condition and David recognized the brand - new they would be over a thousand dollars apiece. He got two sets for $300 and will install the other set at a later date. They're great heavy doors and came with a screen which has already been Cat Tested much to David's annoyance. We're trying to decide what color to paint the livingroom now, we're leaning towards a cream yellow sort of color or a brick red. I'm trying to convince him to do the dining room now too, that will definately be a lighter color due to lack of windows. He also moved the deck to outside the french doors beside the pool which we're covering with a tarp this weekend as it has become very G-ross. We thought the chemicals we put in it would keep it from turning green but they did not. We either did something wrong or because we've left it uncovered the sun probably evaporated all the chemicals. But we're pulling out the liner in the spring - we're just leaving the water in to keep it from collapsing - so as long as I don't have to look at it, it's ok. Homecoming is tonight and everyone is excited, I have to pick up Becky's flowers this morning and David got Jackson's suit from the cleaners. Of course it's raining this morning and will probably be raining tonight but that's not putting a damper on anything. Vincent just came in, he's soaked - he insisted on going out this morning and reappeared in the window a minute ago wearing the classic Drowned Rat ensemble. He's now sitting on my foot drying himself off, such a considerate fellow, sigh.

A Bird In The Paw Is Worth Two In The Bush

Vincent has become quite the killer as of late. Mainly birds, but David said he'd caught a chipmunk the other day, but lost control of it. So he spends his days now in the yard figuring out who's number is up today. Jackson and Becky have been curtailed, Becky apparently is not doing too well in school which has led to a reduction of Jackson Time. We have to go pick out a corsage today for Homecoming, which judging from all the ads is a Bigger Deal than I thought it was. Everyone in town is eager to supply all of our Homecoming Needs. I have to take a look at his suit since he wore it to school one day and who knows what he got on it. Work has gotten tough this week, every time I call a patient to confirm an appointment there's a problem - no supplies, they didn't deliver the medications, etc... and I end up on the phone forever. I've got to start taking pictures again, the trees are really turning colors now. The only thing I have to be very careful about is the deer, since it's not only rutting season but hunting season starts soon which riles them up further. And these are not the sedate deer of The Hideout, these buggers come flying out of nowhere in a herd so I've very much slowed down on the back roads. Especially since we've established last week in the backwoods I'm very much on my own. I'm currently starting a new knitting project - another poncho and it seems to be coming out much better than the one I made a few months ago with the stripes. Stripes seemed like a good idea at the time but the final results proved other wise.

It's Not All Buckwheat And Roses

Today was the last day of the 61rst Buckwheat Festival in Kingwood, WV - better late than never I suppose. I didn't realize it was that time of year and we missed the parade, and the judging and Jessica Lynch, but we managed to make it for the last buckwheat pancake dinners.  They charge you $6 a head but it's all you can eat. The trick of it is - all you CAN eat is about two buckwheat pancakes and maybe a couple sausage patties(David of course got double sausage, one of the advantages of dining with a vegetarian) - after that you would either explode or drop through the floor from sheer weight. I also discovered that the Beehive Hairdo is alive and well in Kingwood,WV. We went to the arts and crafts and the blue ribbon hall, then headed out home, stopping in Arthurdale where Eleanor Roosevelt stopped through about a million years ago and they've never gotten over it. They take thier celebraties seriously around here. Don Knotts has his own boulavard as does Mary Lou Retton, this year was the first one that Don didn't come out for the annual Don Knotts Festival as he wasn't feeling up to snuff. The weather is having a hard time deciding what it would like to be. This morning we were discussing getting out the winter clothes, by noon we were in shorts. David bought us a  bedroom set from Bubba's Garage the other day, it's pretty nifty and was only $230. We've also been busy bees getting ready for the Homecoming Dance, I had Jackson trying on dress shoes to go with the suit and made him put on a size 13 1/2. He said "What do you think I have, clown feet?!". I told him if the shoe fits.....

Half A Building Is Better Than No Building I Suppose

This building is in Uniontown Pa and it's fairly nifty. When you drive by it looks huge but as you come around it's thin with a crappy little red building attached behind it. They've found a nurse for Uniontown so I probably won't be spending too much time up there anymore. I didn't mind the driving but I did mind getting home really late every night. The tempeture has dropped quite a bit at night, we've fired up the heater a couple of times so far but David's looking into a pellet stove too. All the houses around here are heated with natural gas and if you watch the news we are going to get slammed big time this winter. David sold his big lawn tractor which he used all summer before he bought the gravelly -and he sold it for exactly what he'd paid for it so we didn't lose any money.Jackson went on a haunted hayride with Becky, her brother and her brother's wife and had a good time. They have a ton of them around here for all of October. The last picture I've posted is Adam and Reiko, aren't they a nice couple? I'm so glad he's found someone so nice and hopefully they can come home in the spring so we can meet her! For anyone who's sending Adam birthday related things his address is: SN Adam Lester, O Division Operations Dept, USS Gary FFG-51, FPO-AP 96666-1505.  He's going to be out at sea again for his birthday this year so he could use a bit of cheering up. We're not doing too much today, there's a football game at WVU so the traffic is jammed and they're scalping tickets on the side of the road which makes the problem worse. There's wall to wall RVs and every hotel, motel, and flophouse is packed - some people here actually rent thier houses for game season.

Nice Kitty!

Jackson and Claw continue to have thier stormy relationship, I think she'll bite him with her last dying breath. We took Jackson and Becky to the mall today after school to buy Jackson a suit for the Homecoming Dance, the latest Big Deal. Becky came along because her dress is black and red and Jackson needs to be appropriately co-ordinated. We went to JC Penny's since they were having a pretend sale, then to Sears who was competing with thier pretend sale and then off to Ellen Beerman's where they were having a real sale. We got Jackson the same suit we'd seen in JC Penny's for almost half of thier "half price". Then we ate at the food court and back home. I've been all over today since we went to AC Moore's and the other knitting store - that's enough of that for awhile since I can't cram anymore yarn in that dresser and have started piling it underneath. Copper had a big yucky spot on his butt that he managed to infect so I've spent the past few days scrubbing it down with peroxide and putting bacitracin on it. Unlike Charger the Licker Copper leaves things alone and it seems to be healing. The tempeture dropped today and it felt like fall for the first time. Maybe we'll get the winter stuff out of the attic this weekend but David is dragging his feet about that as we all know how he feels about S-N-O-W

David is back.

And he had a good time too, he managed to see pretty much everyone on LI during the week and spend time with his parents. He said the flight back was good, but the jaunt from Pittsburgh to Morgantown airport left a bit to be desired. The plane is very small (20 passenger) and David said they don't bother to pull the curtain so you can see what the captain and his trusty sidekick are doing. He found it a bit disconcerting because they appeared to be randomly tapping on the equipment as they flew and he wasn't sure if it wasnt working or they simply didn't know what it did. He also had an incident in LaGuardia when he put his carryon through the metal detector and while going through his bag later discovered the pocket knife his dad had given him right before he left. David was afraid if he went to the next airport with it there might be a problem so he brought his bag back to the metal detector crew and caused a bit of an uproar. Not because a rather large pocketknife was in his bag and he might be a terrorist, but because someone at the checkpoint was in deep doodoo for letting slide by. David just handed over the pocketknife and told them to keep it since everyone was hysterically denying being at the checkpoint anyhow (apparently David had checked himself through the way things were looking) and got on the plane home. It rained all day yesterday and this morning feels a bit cooler which I'm looking foward to.

Don't Mind If I Do

I guess you're never too old to be a bad cat. This would also be why I've learned not to leave glasses of water around, not that Mr. Lee does this when you're not looking. She doesn't give a rat's ass if you see her or not, she's too old to yell at and knows it. My leg is better this morning, I spent most of the weekend alternating heat and ice and it's bearable. David will be back tomorrow afternoon - after all that with the trial they settled out of court the day before they were scheduled to start so he never had to go testify. Oh well, he got a free trip home and has been busy visiting everyone. Ray came down for the weekend so they're having dinner at Fellingham's every night and driving around. I'm making Jackson take a Becky Break, her familly has got to be tired of seeing him by now. He also wants to buy a suit as he'll be taking Becky to the Homecoming Dance next month. He has gotten strange, I offered to let him play hookey on Friday AND HE REFUSED. I should probably go look for his pod. I'm off to church today and then Jackson and I are cleaning his room this afternoon, mainly the floor which needs to be mopped badly. I'm also messing with the pool, David winterized it but we never got around to covering it so it's Ger-reen again. The problem with the pool is we are indeed being a bit cheap, there's no point in covering it because we're replacing the liner in the spring and plan on buying a cover then. But on the other side I dont' want  a return of the Black Lagoon so maybe we'll just buy a cheap tarp and a few gallons of Clorox.

I'm In The Mood For Mud......

I took a picture of the road yesterday to give an idea of where my patients are. Today it didn't look like that because it rained, which in turned slicked up the iron-rich clay and turned everything a nice shade of muddy orange. (are you wondering where I'm going with this?). This morning I was making good time and went out to my 1st patient who lives as you can see, fairly deep in the country. I got done early and off to my next job 30 miles away when my car started bobbling. My stomach dropped when I looked in my mirror to see my tire getting that ruffled look and I pulled over right away- it was as flat as a pancake and the Fix-a-Flat did not. I pulled out my cell phone - no service. My patient's house was 8 miles back, a tiny town 15 miles in the other direction and no other houses. I heard barking  and saw up on the steep hill was a dilapidated trailer with a dog tied to it so I started up the hill only to go sliding back down. I didn't see a car so I figured no one was there but as I started to walk down the road a woman came out and yelled down if I needed help. I hollered back up about my flat and asked if  I could borrow her phone. She not only said I could borrow the phone, but said I could borrow her son!! who came straight down and changed my flat for me!When I went up to use the phone the dog was so excited to see me he jumped all over - did I mention anything about the mud?? I called the office and got the afternoon off but said I would do the other job in Pa as it was on my way home. I wish I'd taken a look at myself before I said THAT because I was splattered from one end to the other and my shoes were caked. I gave the son $30 for changing my tire, he didn't want anything but if he hadn't been there I would've been looking at a 3 hour walk. At least. At the next patient I took my shoes off outside and washed up as best I could, my day continued on it's cosmic path because thier dog stole my shoe. Sigh. The only happy thing about that was it cracked up my little pedie guy who sometimes doesn't have too much to laugh about. His Grandpa found my shoe, so I dropped off the labs, dropped off my flat tire, made an appointment for tomorrow and went home to put my leg up as I strained a muscle in my shin flailing around in the mud. My mother in law said I should buy some mace, which made me laugh - given the way my life runs if I ran into some loony I'd probably accidently mace myself and endup spending the rest of my life chained up in the root cellar eating moldly turnips and wearing his dead mother's housedresses. So, how was YOUR day?

Happy Belated Fall!

The leaves have already started turning, it's hard to tell in these pictures but there are more and more colors appearing daily. David had a good flight and is hanging out on LI for the week, the trial has been moved to Thursday due to the Not Til Proven Guilty party dragging thier feet and delaying stuff. Things here are a  bit hairy with David not here, I'm doing a huge amount of zipping around trying to stay ahead. Today was my day "off", haha. I spend most of my free time doing three things - homework,paperwork and housework. Jackson's probably going to meet his maker this week as he's no help at all - his excuse for not doing the dishes the other night was he had to look for the cat. I pointed out that I found it hard to believe that from 5;45pm until 9:30pm he had been searching for the cat determined to bring her white fuzzy self in no matter what. So he found himself doing the dishes at 9:35pm. No one is behaving actually, the cats pester me to go out in the morning so I'm fighting them as I'm trying to pack the car. I have a patient near here so I ran home the other day to let the dogs out. I put them out and then ran upstairs to do a few things myself and came back - they were standing on the porch waiting for me to come out so they could do thier business, sigh. Saying they're as dumb as sticks would be insulting to sticks. The uniontown office wanted to know if I could work Wednesday, my day off. Hmm. Let me think about that. No.

The Other Boy

I took this picture of Adam off of Reiko's website, I'm always so glad to see pictures of him! He's seriously talking about re-upping for at least two more years so we'll have to see. I'm glad he seems to have found his niche in life, but I just wish he'd found it a little closer. He's also been very serious about a girl and I think they'll end up married at some point. He's out at sea again and will be celebrating his 22nd birthday this year, I can' t believe he's an adult now. I finished Liz's sweater and Copper did his modelling duties, something a little off the shoulder for him. Yesterday we played hookey from chruch and headed out to Clarksburg. David wanted to drop a pulley off at some guy's house and we ended up sitting in the truck for an hour as he yakked away. Becky was with us as it was a shopping trip, we did Emily Drive first where AC Moore's is - I got a ton of yarn and then we went to the mall in Bridgeport. David leaves for LI tomorrow, his flight is scheduled to leave at 6:25 am so we'll be out the door at 5 I guess. I've been trying to figure out the logistics of the week - I think I'll drop Jackson off early, run back to the house to let the dogs out for one last potty break and then shoot off to work. Then after work, I have to run to Saberton to pick Jackson up (Becky's parents said he could ride the bus home with Becky for the week so he doesn't have to hang around the school), dump him off at home and then bolt to Fairmont for class. I've already spoken to the teacher and she said it was ok for me to be late this week. David will be back next Monday afternoon. My biggest concern is the dogs since I'll be out of the house all day and they're pretty old. But it's really only 3 days I have to concerned about so I guess I'll just have to invest in some rugcleaner and do a lot of finger crossing!

Creature Of The Mid-Afternoon

Vincent would like to be a Creature Of The Night, but around here he's forced to be a Creature Of The Morning To Midafternoon and the whole thing is tough tacos otherwise. There's just too much running around here at night besides cats.Vincent gets a kick out of lurking about the woods and spends the whole day outside.  My job has been picking up and I'm averaging about 80 to 150 miles of travel time a day. I'm loaned out to Uniontown every Friday which is still causing a bit of a ruckus due to last Friday's miscommunication which led to me putting over 250 miles on my car IN ONE DAY. Talk about the scenic tour! David leaves for LI on Monday for the week, I'm dropping him off at the airport at 6am - it should be an interesting week of more driving since I have to ferry Jackson back and forth plus school two nights a week for me. And the dogs of course. We'll muddle through as we usually do. Jackson continues to do fine at home and in school, he's decided he likes Becky's parents better than us so he's been hanging around there a lot. That's ok, the cat likes ME better than Becky's parents! I paid off my ticket so I'm a free citizen, I was told I couldn't put that on my expense account. Apparently criminal behavior is not covered so I guess I won't be prostituting on my lunch break anymore, haha.

It's Almost Autumn!!

The Wicker Squirrel is already for fall - he does like to be dressed in the correct fashion. As I drive along I can already see some of the trees starting to turn colors, just an isolated tree here and there for now. I've been pretty busy, I feel like I spend all my days off either catching up with paperwork or doing homework, the two sometimes feel like one and the same. I've also been getting some more cancer pedies so that means more time spent on the computer and phone trying to find out if you can have a banana without the skin on a neutropenic diet or not and other questions no one seems to know the answer to. Not to mention the other home care things I need to do and know - we get patients all over the map physically and geographically so even when I'm not at work physically, I'm preparing for it constantly. Jackson is getting more involved with school and is doing really well - his weight is up to 165 lbs and he has been occasionally (gasp!!)  spotted wearing other  colors than Festive Funeral Black. He owns two blue and one green t-shirt and one multi-colored AND has been seen wearing BLUE jeans. The last two pictures are of an enourmous cement bible that I spotted tucked behind a tractor dealership. I'm not partial to bibles but I do like oversized stuff so I sort of want this for my very own. I guess I'd better get moving, my day "off" is quickly moving along.

End Of Summer

It's getting to that time of year - only 8 more days and it will officially be fall. I can see some of the trees are already turning color and I know the mountains will be amazing in just a couple of weeks. The cats are enjoying outdoors, they stay out all day with the exception of Mr. Lee who has had her outside privleges revoked permenently. Today it went into the 90's but hopefully that will be shortlived. David is almost done winterizing the pool which continues to leak, I'm sort of curious how low we can go. David ended up getting to busy for church and missed a great sermon which was done by an atheist, he was  very interesting. He often leads the pittsburgh church and made some very interesting points. I'm going to attempt to make coffee next week since I was unable to attend Clean Up Day (David went though), hopefully I won't kill the congregation with my lack of coffee making skills. Jackson is feeling better but that cough hangs on, he's been taking NyQuil because it seems to worse at night. Adam is fine, I don't think they're coming home in October and he's talking marriage so we'll see what happens. I've got to go study, fitting this class in is a bit rough with everything else going on, but at least things are going a bit smoother for us the past couple of weeks.

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

Sigh. I am a criminal again. I got caught speeding - 75mph in a 45 mph zone in Sissy Baby Pennsylvania of course, home of the Sunday Driver. I was guilty and did admit it, so I got reduced to some disobeying the speed limit nonsense which means I have to pay $105, but no points on my license. I've been pretty good about it, once you cross the border to Pa the speed limit drops into 40's instead of the 70's like in HeMan West Virginia and sometimes it's hard to remember to drive like you're mentally impaired.  I was working both ends today - my boss had scheduled me for one end without realizing Uniontown had me going to the opposite end and I drove over 200 miles today for 5 visits. Which all led up to me zipping through Perryopolis Pa with a song in my heart and a pig on my tail. The whole thing sucked in a most major way I have to admit, but I'm over it. The pictures today are of Cheat Lake which I took on my way back from no man's land. That lake is in WV so you can swim as fast as you want. I'm hoping to not do too much this weekend, I am a bit peeved that I didn't get to go to Clarksburg this week(AC Moores, The Nest for All Your Knitting Needs) so I'm debating if I would want to get in the car again for another hike. Probably not. Not to mention I already have more yarn than I could possibly use unless I get reincarnated many, many times. Gas is down to 2.89, isn't that funny I think that's cheap?

On Patrol

I've been pretty busy these past few days. I did make it into the class - David called them on Tuesday morning and they said if I brought my registration and payment they would let me in. Registration was supposed to have been closed 5 days prior to the class but past experience has taught me nothing speaks louder than money in hand. Of course I was running late from work, couldn't find the building, etc and managed to register 30 seconds before the first class started. It's a medical coding class and will be 3 hours twice a week after work. During the class they announced they sort of forgot to tell everyone that we would need $300 worth of additional books which went over as well as expected. There are quite a few single parents so I couldn't blame them for being upset - I was a little myself but there's nothing I can do about it. And then to add to the mix Jackson has been home sick for the past two days. Tuesday he woke up with a scratchy throat and little cough - I hate that because it's hard to judge if they'll get better or worse so we did what we usually do, send him and told him to go to the nurse if he got worse. So he was home by ten and has been home ever since. I think we can send him in tomorrow at least to get his make up work. We got the final check from the sale of the Pa house, thank goodness that's over and done with. The day of the closing they called to announce they couldn't find the keys to the house so they might not be able to close so David yelled back How The Hell Were You Showing The House Then and that sort of cured that little problem.