The Candy Is All Mine.

Since we are now living on the main drag we figured we'd get trick or treaters for once in our career - so in anticipation of the Onslaught we bought a lot of candy. We didn't have a single trick or treater. You read that right, not one. So we have a fairly large bowl of candy just sitting there begging to be eaten. It took all of my willpower to have a bowl of Rice Chex this morning instead of an assortment of mini candy bars. I figure we'll just horse it down until it's gone and that will be that. The snow is finally disappearing, the temps warmed up and now the yard is a big sloppy mess which Pearl enjoys skidding around in. Ray is scheduled to make a special guest star appearance today so we have performed the usual De - Catting Ritual of his room, I also have a surprise for him. He has this thing about a singer from the 50's, Frankie Laine and has been on the hunt for a CD - and has been unsucessful. While in the Great Lakes I actually found him a couple of his greatest hits albums so that should make him happy. Work has been busy and a bit frustrating, they do things a bit differently and then you throw the computer in plus a full schedule - but I'm getting the hang of it and am finding a lot of my patients pretty amusing. I had one that did an impression of the doctor's wife so dead on I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

Winter continues, I feel a little silly buying Halloween candy while outside it looks like we need a string of christmas lights and holly. I let the cats out for a little while this morning, we are going to try letting them out early before we go to work for the winter. I can't see having them stay out all day, at least not during the cold weather and them still being fairly unfamilar with the area. Ray is coming out this weekend but on Saturday as he worries about his house during Halloween. Back to work was a bit of a march, but if you take a week off it always is. My laptop sits next to my desk collecting dust at the moment but that will change in a few months after they get on the new system. David did return the generator yesterday, it just wasn't worth it as the reason we needed it (the well) was the one thing we can't use it for. We'll just buy some more plastic containers and keep them filled as according to EVERYONE around here it's not unusual for the outlying areas to be without power during the winter for hours on end. David was talking to Cecil back in WV about it yesterday and he said Bertha was in the back yelling "you can come home now" - some days I still wish I could.

Eek! Instant Winter

Sorry about the mishmash of pictures but you can only put four on as far as I can see so I try to pick and chose. I don't know if you can put headers on them either, but at least I can put them up now. We had a rather unpleasant day yesterday, the electric putzed out around 11:30 - and of course we forgot to fill the tub. David had filled two containers but when the electric still wasn't on at 3:30 we did start to worry. David went out and bought a generator but we may end up returning it. The heat is no problem, we have a ventless propane heater in the dining room that does a surprisingly good job of heating the whole house - but the water pump has no plug (it goes straight to a panel) so David would have to create a plug which could lead to trouble. Anyhoo, the electric finally came back on around 7 pm so we had water. The snow stopped last night and it seems to be starting to melt, I would say we got about 4 or 5 inches altogether. We heard from Jackson in the wee hours this morning, he was waiting for his plane to take him to Mississippi, they woke them up at 1 am for the bus and they were sitting at the airport so we got a call around 5. He sounds good and ready for his next adventure.

I'm Dreaming Of A White....Halloween???

Well, I don't know about your neck of the woods, but mine is buried in snow. It's not some little dusting either, it's about 3 or 4 inches SO FAR and is still coming down. It's wet and heavy and we have also discovered something new about satellite TV and it is not a good thing. If there is snow on the dish the picture doesn't come in. So you have to get a ladder and a broom and brush off the snow. Repeat as needed. The other thing that is coming into play is the well. The electric has flickered off and on a couple of times this morning and the Well Of Memory has come back, precisely that if there are no lights there is no water. So we now have a few containers filled just in case. I'm glad I took an extra day off of work, the original reason was that due to current events I'm very behind in things I need to do and took the extra day for a catch up sort of thing. But with the snow at the moment I'm stuck in the house, but I will be taking my car out for an experimental drive just to see. Pearl of course is enjoying the snow, she runs like a loon back and forth sliding and carousing like nobody's business. The cats on the other hand of are a different opinion - we did finally let them out yesterday on thier own. I figured since we're home it would be a good time to do it and they were in and out, a little nervous but enjoying it. Thier adventures have been cut short by the weather, they can go out and did but came back in shortly, but in the greater scheme of things I sort of prefer the short jaunts for now. Pearl is a bit skinny at the moment, the people at the kennel said she barked constantly and they pretty sure she didn't sleep - I don't think she ate too much, but she'll recover.

In The Navy

What a great time we had, I have to say it was one of our more memorable vacations. I took tons of pictures of course, but the ones I wasn't allowed were the ones I wish I had. When we were sitting in the parking lot waiting for Jackson's unit I was watching all the new recruits. All dressed perfectly in their uniforms, looking so much like young men. But as they came around the corner you could see the anxiety in their eyes as they looked for their moms and dads and the relief when they were spotted, the others retreated to the sidewalk to wait in a group, scanning each car as it went by. We took Jackson to the mall as requested, most of the base was there, back on more familiar ground for them. This is a major transition period for them, a few people came up to Jackson and shook his hand and thanked him for serving our country (how cool is that!) and he looked so grown up, but he's not so grown up that we didn't get dragged to the Safari tour to look at the snakes. He played the video games at our hotel - they were old ones but any port in a storm as they say. The next day we couldn't spend the entire day, he wanted to go back to the mall - we ran into his friend from the base and they were doing something in the afternoon so we headed off for an early lunch. We could've spent an a little more time with him but I didn't want him to miss an afternoon out - he was a little anxious as we didn't spot them but we headed down to the other cafe and there they were. We hugged goodbye and my last look of him was Jackson heading off to his friends eagerly for whatever adventures planned for the last afternoon of liberty. I miss him, but I'm glad to see he's doing well and enjoying his new life. We headed off to the airport, we ended up sitting but it was alright because there's plenty to do there. We got in late and then there was the VERY long drive home, we arrived about 1 am, threw the suitcases on the floor and headed to bed. This week is looming large and we now have a new set of spanky bills to pay, but this is it for awhile. We are going to ground and staying there for a few months. At least.

Well, he's all graduated. We had to be there really early - I had called Janet's cell phone to make sure they knew but I had a small faux pas. I forgot to use her new number in my speed dial. But they hurried and we were at the base by 7 am. We snaked our way around and were seated by 8am for a 9 am graduation. All I can say is I'm glad we didn't dally or bring any extra people because they wouldn't have gotten in. The graduation was great, love the navy band! and as you can see from the picture Jackson has changed drastically in the past two months. He looks wonderful and is all Navy This and Navy That.  He had watch at 4 pm which was a little disappointing, David and I will be here for his liberty but Janet and Diane are leaving this morning so they didn't get to spend as much time with him as they wanted. But we had a wonderful afternoon  - we went to lunch and Jackson got his beloved bacon cheeseburger and then after we drove around the super ritzy part part of Gurnee Illinois by the lake. We went back to the base and Jackson picked up his pictures that we will be trollying home on the plane along with the Ginormous frames he bought. Then he ran off for  4 o'clock watch at 2:45, so worried about being late. This boy that 6 months ago we we screaming out of bed every morning, Mr Five More Minutes. The change the navy makes in these boys is overwhelming, he is an instant adult. He's still Jackson though, but we're glad he's doing so well and loving his life - what more can you ask?

David and I are not big travelers. I mean we're pretty good Get In The Car And Go people and fairly hot stuff with our GPS and maps. But the airport, the plane, the arrangement with the animals, the rental car - well, that's just asking for a big fight, isn't it? The thing that pushed things over the edge was the long term parking at Newark airport - which in itself is NOT clearly marked. Not kidding - the first sign we saw for it was the one saying it was indeed the airport. It's a big circle of roads and we kept following the signs for parking - and ended up back at terminal A. We stopped and asked a cop who apparently felt he should not be forced to answer such mundane questions but did - the we had to pull over AGAIN as the parking (not kidding) is TWO MILES from the highway and of  course not marked. Fortunately we had left very early as we've never been to Newark and I like to leave plenty of time for any Untoward Events. Then we went to check our bags in and not only were they a couple of pounds over but David's ATM card was not functioning. So we charged the $30 to our VISA and from there everything else went as scheduled. We got jacked at the rental car, you know they quote you a price and then when you get there it's did you need insurance, GPS, an upgrade, four tires - all at a nominal fee. We managed to get out of there with our underpants, but barely! This was balanced out by the fact we weren't aware we could get a navy discount and paid half of what I thought we would.  So we went out to dinner and then did a spin around the mall which is only a mile down the road. I'm sure we'll be able to take Jackson there. I'm so excited that we'll be able to see him tomorrow,even if it's only for a short period of time. Janet and Diane are going to be coming in tonight and then we are off to the base in the AM.