The Dirt Nazi

I swear......if the next door neighbor doesn't go away soon.........

I know most people have a neighbor like this........old and crotchety, with nothing better to do than make your life hell. She makes my family so much more important than I want us to be.I think she stands by her door just waiting for us to do something that she can complain about.

Last week the neighbor on our right bought some dirt to fill in the holes between his seawall and the yard.  He had asked hubby if he wanted any dirt because there would be plenty left over. He said whatever was left could go to the yard guy.

Hubby decides to get a few wheelbarrows full just to have something to do (since he is always so bored).

The next thing you know The Dirt Nazi comes running out of her house asking if we were granted permission to take the dirt. Hubby says sure he was given permission. The bitch  Dirt Nazi starts telling hubby that the yard guy is suppose to have the dirt. She rambles on and on that the dirt isn't for just anyone. Well.....that pissed hubby off sooooo he proceeded to take even more than we really needed.

Yet he didn't put a dent in the pile.
There was plenty left to go around.

I wonder what she would have done if I had taken the water hose to it and let it all go down the sewer drain???

Hopefully when I get old, (old is someone 15 years older than you are.... hum.....) I will have more to do in life than bitch at the neighbors.

Lucy's Mind at Work

My first thought was to write about Baby who is my 3 year old granddaughter. I've raised 4 kids and for the moment I'm  raising her. I feel much like WC Fields when he said???....hum......what did he say???

so this is how it happens.......... 

Lucy's Mind at Work

I google famous quotes about children.

First I see Groucho Marx and I think maybe I got the wrong guy but the only thing about kids that he has is...."I've got the brain of a four year old. I'll bet he was glad to be rid of it." I think that is lame......I'd love to have the brain of a 4 year old.....even a 4 year old can stay on task longer than I can.

 Then I see on the sidebar... if I like Groucho check out George Carlin. I LOVE George Carlin!!! The quote that catches my attention is ....."One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor." That reminds me that I'm not drinking. This in turn reminds me of Al-Anon and what a lady said in there........ "If you have one foot in the future and the other in the past, then your peeing all over today".  I begin to wonder if that was her actual quote or if someone else said it first. I go back to the quote section and begin a search.

 I find this quote by Albert Einstein, "The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion". What ever the hell that means? When I click that quote, it takes me to his quote of  "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". I think that is kind of funny since today in tennis I kept trying to hit this same drop shot over and over and it was NOT working..... did I change my plan?? NOOO....I guess I play insane tennis. But for real, they say that quote in Al-Anon a lot......strange huh?

This, in turn, makes me think about Baby's mom who is busy rehabbing. She is in a half way house now.......I want her rehabilitated........I DO NOT want to raise Baby forever.

I wonder what the success rate for recover is?

 I start searching for the rates of success. It's confusing to find these statistics since each rehab center rates success differently. Some just rate the success based on those who complete the 30/60/90 day program. The days depend on the place. TQ was  in a center that goes for 30 days. She has succeeded  as far as that rehab is concerned. She stayed clean while she was there. She attended the required meetings. She saw a counselor weekly. She stayed open minded and followed all suggestions. She took her medicine as required. The 1/2 way house that she is in now seems to be a good place.....but.........Oh wait.........this was not where I was going with this blog.

I was looking for WC Fields quote about kids........I love my grand girls but I REALLY would like to be grandma just for a day.

Finally! I find WC Fields but one quote says " I love kids....fried"  the other says "I love kids......cooked properly".

That is not the quote I'm looking for since they are so much better battered ...with a little assault and pepper.......ahem......a little joke there.

Later I will look to see if I made that up or if it was done by someone famous...........right now....I'm tired

Beach Time USA

I've just gotten back from a 2 week vacation in the Outer Banks located on the north eastern shores of  North Carolina.
  
The Saga Begins
Usually when I travel there I stop at my brother's house to break up the trip. This year was different. As we (I had my oldest grand daughter with me LL for Lemon Lady) neared the Rocky Mount exit, I get a phone call from my sis-in-law. She says, "Don't bother to stop by. Your brother has fallen off the roof!" I say, "WHAT?????" She says "yeah, the ambulance has got him and I'm following. I think he is conscious but I think his leg and back are broken and he did hit his head pretty hard!!!" I say (in a suspicious voice), "Was he drinking?" She says, "Noooo".  She keeps repeating "I told him not to go up there but he never listens to me". I hang up and I am Wowing to myself over and over..........
Later we get a call telling us that his ankle is broken and he will get pins in it on Monday.......WOW

Here is a picture of that..... It looks really painful. I know the doc gave him some strong pain meds. Hopefully he doesn't become like The Queen (my daughter) My sis-in-law says the doc says he can't drink either........but.........???

 um....back to the story......


My biggest fear is driving at night on the beach road to our cottage. Sand is on both sides and there are no lights to shine on the darkened roads. My only guide to find the cottage after dark will be the anchor covered in blue lights in the front yard..........still hard to see at night

So here I am wondering what we're going to do for dinner and if we are going to get to the cottage before night fall. I'm thinking.....I'm not hungry as we near the town where my sister lives ... my mom is few minutes down the road so we could stop there. I don't bother to call my sister because she is usually out and about doing stuff with her family but I do I call my mom to see if she is home.........she is not. I remember that it is Saturday and (come hell or high water)she does grocery shopping after eating out. I think this is actually a good thing since she burns most everything she cooks......we decide to continue on.

My old stomping grounds are about 45 minutes from the beach. Where I come from the measurement does not go in miles it goes in time.

LL is a bit hungry as we near the beach. I see a fruit stand and pull in. $34 later.......we leave with a handful of fresh cherries, 2 cantaloupes, 2 beautiful home grown tomatoes,and a bucket full of red potatoes. (What cost $34 I'll never know. Tourist Trap)

Traffic is heavy on a Saturday and when I say heavy, I mean heavy.

We are stuck in traffic but we have cherries that we devour while waiting. We spend time commenting on how wonderful the weather is (mid 70's) and wondering how long it will take before traffic moves again.  We contemplate the wonders of the universe. We listen to the only radio station on the Outer Banks that is broadcasting half way decent music (104 http://www.classichits1049.com/index.html) We ruminate about life. We begin to grow old.............
.......what would have normally be a 45 minute drive turns into stop and go traffic that takes a little over 2 hours to accomplish.

Finally we arrive........you can smell the ocean breeze and there is a crispness in the air. We rummage up some sandwiches, make our beds and grab some blankets. It's gonna be a cool one!

the front porch






and back porch of our modest beach side cottage



LL and I spend the next 4 days loving the beach with no interruptions from anyone. We do what we want, when we want. The days are clear and the beach is awesome.

LL meets a young man from Maryland. She wonders if she should flirt since she has a beau back home. I tell her........what happens at the beach........stays at the beach!!

 This is what we call Beach Time. We have no clock. We have no heat. We have no washer or dryer. We have no phone. We have no TV. We have no A/C.


What we do have is.......

A lot of food including fresh seafood.
A closet full of games.One radio station on the Boom Box. The sound and the smell of the ocean at our back door. A plethora of family members, friends,and animals coming in and out to visit.This year we had an extraordinary amount of easterly breezes, which kept me from wanting to go home early.



My sister and her family came to visit on Monday. That broke up the day pretty good. I don't swim so that also gave LL some swim time. My niece brought her boyfriend. A little romance beach side.

LL spent time tanning, reading, and boy watching. She celebrated her 15th birthday with us. She was very white when we arrived. She left a little less white!
Tuesday night all the rest of the crew arrived. TE, TQ and Baby and PIT (tween grand daughter, Princess in Training) bringing all thoughts of quietness to an sudden halt.





PIT spent most of her time laying about and texting.....(the one thing I couldn't get rid of....cell phones)




 

TE and Baby spent a lot of time in the surf.......










TQ went to a lot of meetings. Mostly AA. Bob (who chose to stay home this year) was absolutely right when he said that TQ acted out before drugs and that that was a part of her personality. He didn't think her being sober would matter much with her Diva attitude.........He was right it did not change......sigh.....yes.....it IS all about her. The Queen rules with an iron fist and all us little ole co-dependent peons 'hop right to it'.

She stayed sober up until the night before we left. She took a hand full of my Lortab.  I thought they were hidden but I guess not good enough.  This pill doesn't give her the high of Roxie's but I guess for that night they served her purpose. Her attitude was good for the most part but I think that was because we peons did what we were told without any hesitation. Can't complain though......we made it through with a better than usual vacation.

As for me.......I spent most of my waking hours reading, visiting and cooking. All things that I love to do.
My reading list included :
The Post Mistress by Sarah Blake
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard (my favorite)
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (loved the story)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (bit too much with the computer hacker jargon)
The 9th Judgment by James Patterson (He never writes a bad book)
and
The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie (for my co-dependency)

Family, friends, books and food make my world a happy place!

If only dreams came true................

I had a dream...........sigh........

It started with me playing tennis. I was at the top of my game. I was in the zone! I was all over the place!! Picking up unbelievable short shots making awesome winners!!! I was serving aces at the speed of light!!! I was slamming over heads, dropping short balls, zinging winners cross court...........I WAS UN-F***ING -BELIEVABLE!!!!!
Then dream turned over to my family in a counseling session. I never saw the doctor's face but I heard his soothing voice. He had a very calming affect on me. The next thing you know he's in my bed. He has one leg slung over my legs and his arm across my back. His hand is caressing my shoulder and he is whispering something about my ????mother???? (WTF?)  He stops talking. I  turn and look at him. I think to myself ...OH MY GOD he is DROP DEAD gorgeous. ( I know him from somewhere) He smiles and I smile back and ask what's wrong. He thinks I'm so beautiful; I've  made him lose his train of thought. I lean into him and ........

 Damn ..........grrrrrr........

I played tennis this morning and at times I DID impress myself but nothing like my dream.......sigh.........

I come home and try to find the man in my dreams. As it turns out it's the guy from The Mentalist.  Now he is a hunky looking guy but I'm not much on blonds.  I prefer men with darker features.

I find myself wondering what it all means???

 Not really caring anymore "what it all means", I lay down with Baby for nap time and try as I might I can not recapture where Simon and I were in my early morning dream......

If only dreams came true..............sigh...............

CocoRosie - Lemonade

So TE (the engineer, my hubby) says to me, "be careful what you say on the internet. You've been known to speak without thinking and you talk too much". Hummmm.........

We were watching Dexter tonight and his sister had stopped drinking and smoking and chasing men..........she was spewing off at the mouth and Ol' Dexter says almost the same thing as TE only he's not talking about the internet...he's just talking in general. The sis says since she is not smoking, drinking nor chasing men she should have at least one vice. I agree......I've been thinking that I'm not fun anymore. I had said I was going to have sex with strange men but TE was gonna get mad about that since I don't have it with him either...........so............ I think I'll enjoy the only vice I have left..........spewing off at the mouth

TE also thinks all I do is play games on the computer. But I really do quite a bit of research. Read on......

My brother put this video up on Facebook the other day. Stupid me.......I had to press the button. The song has haunted me ever since. I've done some research on these girls and they are really an enigma to me.
Listen if you dare.......

They are an Indie band. Their genre of music is called freak folk.  Bob and I had this discussion on what exactly Indie meant. I always thought that it was a movie or musician that was not well known. As it turns out that may not always be the case. He says it's just that the companies that produce the music or movie may not be well known.

Their real names are Bianca "Coco" and Sierra "Rosie" Casady. Sierra is the dark haired one.She also has the sweetest singing voice. Bianca's voice is very unusual. I can't quite decide how to describe it. It's not unpleasant........It's just like a little girls voice talking.....but scratchier??? Maybe a bit like Janis Joplin? I don't know, you'll just have to listen to the song.

In the interviews that I've watched they don't seem to be comfortable with it all yet. I've seen some post that say they're high but who knows for sure? I thought their face make up was unique and when I googled them FaceCulture came up. I thought that was why they were made up like they were......because they belonged to a group called FaceCulture. As it turns out that is a magazine that I think specifically interviews Indie bands.

One other song that I liked was Werewolf. I also listened to Jesus Loves Me and that one was disturbing. I'm sure that they are sending a message........I'm just not sure what the message is. They have a few CDs. Grey Oceans seems to be the latest and that is the CD that Lemonade is on.

Hopefully putting all this in writing will now allow me to sleep in peace..........goodnite

The task at hand.....

Right now I'm working on my friends bio. I'm not having a difficult time but it takes time to find just the right character to portray them.

A large majority of us have known each other for 20 years. Some have come into the our circle more recently but all are loved just the same

My son was looking over my shoulder trying to figure out what I was doing and finally got the fact that I'm blogging. He says no one will want to read a story. I told him our lives are much better than a soap opera. Since I'm creating names, I'll give my son one. He's the musician. He will become Bob as in Bob Dylan. The picture is real...........he is the unknown musician.....kind of like the unknown comic.


anyway......................

With all the reality shows out there I don't know why someone wouldn't be interested in what we are doing. I suppose I think we are way more important than what we really are......... but I do know some people will enjoy my ramblings and most of them will be my friends.Who knows?? Maybe I'll even meet a few new ones along the way.

A Bit of History

My eldest son is 36. He is an alcoholic. He blames his problems in life on me for not buying him a surfboard when he was 13. Right now he lives with his dad and step-mom in Tennessee.They are 7 Day Adventist and live in a commune. He has been there for a few years now and is sober.

My second is 33 and has been in and out of institutions since the age of 16. He is now serving time in a USP in Pennsylvania for bank robbery. He thinks he is Frank Abagnale Jr (the guy in "Catch Me if You Can"). He doesn't place any blame on his momma. He actually has my name tattooed in a cross down the middle of his back with the saying "Momma tried" along his shoulders. He has been out of prison long enough to procreate. He has 2 biological children and one that we accept as our own. His next release date is 2012.

My daughter is 23 and a drug addict. Her drugs of choice are Roxie's and Xanax. She is in a residential treatment center at the present time. She has a child that is for the moment in my custody (don't know why she trusts this household). She blames me for her addiction because I gave her everything her heart desired. I actually gave her more than her heart desired.....but that is what co-dependency is all about.... isn't it?

My youngest (and my only hope of winning this game called "good parenting") is 20 and headed off to a 4 year university this fall. He will be majoring in Music Composition. He's not old enough yet to know that I screwed him up too.

My husband is not always available emotionally or physically. What more can you say....he's an engineer.

As for me,I am 53 years old and have been married twice. The first marriage lasted off and on for 4 years. I married when I was 16. I'm presently married now for 28 years. I work part time as a tax preparer. My hobbies are taking care of others and playing tennis. If I didn't have someone to take care of ........well........I'll just say, I am seeking help with my co-dependency. Teaching an old dog new tricks is kind of rough.

That's my life in a nut shell.