My Hero

"And you didn't take the skull??" Mum would say. Well, it was all gross, and I didn't have a bag or anything. And besides, I think there was one of those, "Take only pictures, leave only footprints" signs. Not that that really would have stopped me, I just didn't have gloves or a bag. Plus what if there was dried tendons and other yucky things holding it all together? Anyway, I had my camera, and this picture just fits my mood these days, heh heh. I try to be positive, I really do, I'm just stuck in a pit of disgruntlement lately. I feel betrayed and lied to, by the country that I love. I did what I was supposed to, got a "good" job, with benefits and vacation time, I work over 40 hours a week, and one of my two monthly paychecks doesn't even cover the rent!! How am I supposed to live the American dream and have my own home and family? I need a miracle. And guess what?

Out of the blue, my Dad rescued me, like a beautiful refridgerator light banishing the blackness and illuminating a bountiful cornecopia. Yup, my Dad, a hero to not just me but the whole community, bought me a fridge. In one week, delivered to my house, I will trade floating sticks of butter for gallons of ice cream!!! I am so dang independant, to a fault, that I am physically incapable of asking for help. I live by the law that, if I can't make something happen for myself, then I must not be trying hard enough. I've considered getting a second job. Today I was considering shutting off the internet/ phone lines to save money, but then I couldn't post for all the world to read: THANK YOU DAD!! Thank you for finding the chink in my self sufficient armor! I cried, tears of joy, (twice) and wish I could say more than just thanks, and I love you. Maybe we could go out to breakfast this Sunday or next so I could get some laughter and family time in. You're buying, right? HAHA! ;) I love you Dad. Thank you so much!!

Summertime... and Poor

The other day, on my way to work, listening to my 8 minutes allowed news yukk, I heard about the bill to help the children of the working poor have health insurance. I would like to say that this is a GREAT thing, and a step in the right direction, BUT it bothered me all day. Because if you work, you deserve not to be poor. Minimum wage is "suposed" to ensure that people have what they need to live. But if you can't afford health care, let alone decent food and shelter, then you don't make enough to live. Minimum wage was just raised to $7.25, and it's at least 13 dollars off. It REALLY PISSES ME OFF that hard working families aren't able to take their kids to a $%&@#* doctor!!! America needs some serious wealth redistribution.
There was a REAL LIVE politician who said, "No one should have too much, and no one should have too little." Can you imagine if Bush said, "Laura and I have too much. We're switching to clothes from Wal-Mart until all of America's, hell, the WORLDS children have health care." Now I'm just laughing. Or imagine if there was a cap on a person's net worth?

IRS Representative: Haris Pilton? You have exceeded your alotted ASL* (American Standard of Living) and we're going to take the excess to redisribute among the "working poor" so that they will now be "the working".

*ASL= 1 million if filing singly, 2 million if filing jointly or have dependants.

Even that sounds like too much. And I'm all aggro now, when all I wanted to do was tell you about lovely summer and creek things. Grrrrrrrr this is why I don't listen to the news!! Okay, back to our previously scheduled programming.

Channeling fluffy bunnies..... ommmmmmm

This place is summer to me. My Great Grandparents creek, on their 10 acres in Pennsylvania. I went there for several weeks every year when I was a kid, and only sporadically now. This time of year is when I think about all my family back there the most, pretty much every day. I wish all my family lived in one place.
Although, it was weird today, it's August and it never broke 70 degrees; I've been wearing a sweatshirt almost the entire day. In PA it was always at least 90 in the summer.
But I'm a digressin'. I hate traveling, but I love the destinations. I want to go to PA again, soon, I just wish I had a star trek transporter. Probably we all wish it were that easy. I will be traveling, though, to Arizona to visit me Mummsish. I am really looking forward to seeing her and her hubby and even her weird little dog. Sometimes I wish I would get fired so I would have no choice but to move out of this insanely expensive area. I'd like to spend a year in PA and a year in AZ, bein' with family and unwinding, exploring new life options. But I'd also be leaving family behind. :( I need to start a commune, where I will force all my peeps to live!! HAHAA! And I will be the queen! Hahahaha! Oh wait.

I need a winning lotto ticket. AKA the poor man's (more) tax. Dang, the fluffy bunnies are fading...

PS: The tax to support the children's healthcare? It's a cigarette tax, which is supposed to make people quit (and it hits the poor the most (???) but if it works and people quit, then what's going to pay for the kid's healthcare?? Why the @#$% not do a LUXURY TAX INSTEAD??? Hey there, Mr. Rich Guy, two thousand dollars of the tax on that new HUMMER you just bought is going toward helping little girls and boys get inhalers for asthma! Living in the least expensive/ most polluted part of the city has required that they get those! Okay, it's beer time.

Slee-P

Awww, he's sleeping with his mouth open!!


Look, he's so tuckered I can open his mouth even more and he doesn't wake up! Aaaww.


What the hell??!!!?

I'm soooo going there. It was worth it.

Trees and Stuff

Going through all my photos is certainly nostalgic, but it is also tedious. Mind numbing even. I do not want to title a photo ever again. And yeah, I love the forest, but hundreds of pictures like these? Maybe a bit much. Haha, I don't even have a printer. I guess if you're not a hermit you can take your memory card to a store and they will print all your pics for you, but I'm also a cheapskate.
Although, ink cartridges are WAY expensive. So for now I will just dump all my kitty and tree pics right in your lap :P haha. Wait! Come back! I will try to limit myself! I will tell you about the tick I found on my neck this morning! Aw crap now you're really gone. It was just a teeny tiny smaller than a flea one. I think Clarence drops the ones he doesn't want on my bed when I'm asleep. Okay, that's pretty gross. In other Clarence news, Mommydad nannyman is keeping the kittens well licked. They're still hoping he'll grow some milk but they're pretty much outta luck. I think I made my own ears bleed with the piercing squeals of cuteness factor 5000 that I couldn't help emitting.
Oh, and what was really cool today? There were swarms of butterflies up in the canopy. I think of butterflies as flowery meadow inhabitants, but I guess not neccessarily. I tried to take a picture, but they were so high up they were tiny 3 pixel dots of yellow. I now see the alure of different lenses. But dangit, there's that cheapskate thing again! Well, a fully employed partner would help. Guess what though? He got a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only 20 hours a week min. wage, but gad anything will help. Almost hit the 6 month mark and down 5g in savings. Ouch. Oh, and he brings home free sandwiches, and so that's like another hour of pay. Woot. Ooops, that wasn't very enthusiastic. Plus he's gonna kill me if he reads this 'cause he doesn't want me to blog about him. But hey, he's bringin' home dinner, and he keeps the house tidy, and it could be a lot worse. So yay baby! You go! Love ya!!
P.S. retaining wall on hiatus.

My Little Confessions

In sixth grade I was finally weaned from my lunchbox. It was really cool, red with Garfield on it. One day I forgot my lunch, and my Mom brought it, in the middle of class. The walk to meet her at the door and then back to my desk was a long, snicker and mutter filled one. I never used it again, but what hurt way more than the kids teasing me was them talking shmack about my Mom. I wasn't embarassed by her at all, I was mad that they thought they had any right to judge such an awesome person (Mom, not me lol). I think it's rad that lunchboxes are "cool" now. Not that it matters anymore, thank goodness.
Or so I thought.
I had to sneak into the forest, my secret wrapped in a brown paper bag, to take these pictures. I blushed at the mere thought of taking the pictures in my front yard, in the garden. I had been thinking about these since I mentioned them the other day, and when looking through some storage boxes for my journal, I found them. Okay, two have been in my kitchen, unabashedly displayed, for a couple years now. But I found the old ones. "Old School", retro, vintage 1984. The stuff dreams are made of.
Well, little girl dreams.
Hey, PHEONIX played with them. I just set up the photo shoot. See, a few years ago, My Little Ponies made a comeback. I was super thrilled. I dream occasionally of finding stashes of them in old toy stores. They left a life long impression on me. I was never into real live horses, but these colorful renditions were the shizznit. Plus they came in Unicorn and Pegasus too. (!) So when I found out they were back, I HAD to get some. My Mom took me to Toy's R Us, and I was instantly transformed to lil girl. Okay, disclaimer here. I do not regurlarly hit up toy stores with my Mommy and Daddy. Still, it was very exciting. They changed the mold, though. I mean, why wouldn't they? MLP is no longer chubby, and she kinda has bedroom eyes now. If that's possible. But it's still hasbro, and even if it's the next generation, it's the real thing.
So there we were, getting all in to toys, checking out the back of the box for other models available, and I saw a picture of one I had to have. Mom suggested we go ask an employee if maybe they had more stock in the back somewhere, and I was so down. We headed up to the customer service department. Asked a nice lady about it, and she said she thought they might indeed have more, in fact- gasp- baby ones!! And then she said her coworker could help us and she waved him over. Here comes Mr. Hot Guy, my age. O... M... G... This only happens on sitcoms, or in movies, or... or.. to other people. People not me. My heart started pounding and the room felt really fricken warm. "Um, actually, that's ok", I stammered. "Mom, lets just go." I started edging toward the registers, the two ponies I was holding creeping behind me. "Hey, I know you", he says. Oh god! It gets worse?? He was ignoring my attempt to decline his help, and started chatting me up, and I finally realized I actually hung out with him a couple times in highschool, the entire time being nervous in his attractive presence. "Oh yeah, " I said. "Ummmm, how ya been?", still leaning toward the registers. We talked a bit, and the entire time he stared at me, never looking anywhere else. My face, I'm sure, was crimson. My armpits no longer remembered what "dry" was like. Finally he said, "are you sure you don't want me to check in back for you?" Totally sincere, even. I convinced him I didn't. I convinced Mom too, who was not quite getting the turn of events from excited pony purchaser to mortified 25 year old caught buying toys. And yeah, I coulda been buying them for a kid, but what can I say, I'm not a good liar. When we got out of there, I explained my inner monologue to her, and she laughed! "He was totally checking you out!" she said.
Oh.
Oh. Really? Naaah..
"Oh he sooo was, " Mom said. "He watched you as we were leaving." Oh. Hmmm. Well. Not sure what to say about that. So, maybe it's cool to like My Little Ponies now. Um, I don't play with them. I collect them. I also brushed their hair, but that was just for the photo shoot. That one is not "flying through the air", I was trying to get a shot of her in the waning sunlight. I was! She was my ABSOLUTE favorite when I was a kid, because she has rainbow hair AND green glittery stuff on her rump, AND she can fly. I mean she has wings. Anyway, I'm so glad I still have her, 23 years later, band-aid scar and all (she was in a mighty battle, I remember; she was a war hero).
Also, she's good for picking up guys.

My Boy

I went hiking with my boy this weekend, just the two of us. Lilly wanted to stay and sun herself in the garden, and Clarence was off prowling the neighborhood somewhere. Of course, after we left, Lilly changed her mind and, I was told, meowed sadly at the mountain for quite awhile. But it was nice to have some one on one time. Instead of running all over and leaping out of bushes to scare the crap out of his sister, a game that never gets old, he kept almost tripping me up with his swirling around my legs.

At the ridge I found a nice spot with a view, and he impatiently climbed into my lap. We sat there and felt the perfect 75 degree breeze and listened to the leaves rustle. I swear, I need to bottle the essence of the forest. And Pheonix. Wait, no. Eeew. Anyway, maybe I could just package up the pinecones, sell 'em as zen bombs. Pheonix loves to play catch the pinecone, but we just sat and, well, catnapped. A half hour passed and I rousted myself to hike a little more, but Pheonix started demanding that we return home, probably missing his sister. They're best buddies :) ... except when they are hunter and prey. Lilly got Pheonix pretty good the other day, he floofed right up! Haha.
And THEN... I discovered... how to transefer my pictures from my old computer to my new one ("new"= the one I've had for a year and a half, Mom's super awesome gift of her Mac she didn't use). And it's about time I got all my kitties baby pics updated and photoshopped and stuff. IS PHEONIX CUTE OR WHAT???!!!???? Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Are you all in for it now. I have ten million, five hundred eighty six, nine hundred twenty three pictures. Of my cats. HAHAHAHAAAHAA. Whew. Can you imagine what it's gonna be like when I have HUMAN kids?!?? Run. Run in terror. Save yourself!!!

Garden Fever

Okay, of course roses are pretty. This one is special though. Now, I personally would never have chosen pink. Pink anything, for that matter. Pink clothes, bedspreads, curtains, paint... I'm feeling a little woozy here. It's just not my color. Actually I chose my favorite color, when I was a lil kid and these things were important defining features, by asking my Mom what her favorite color was. I woke her from her nap for this pressing matter, and sleepily she mumbled "green". Green?!? I thought to myself. I was a 6 year old girl.
My favorite colors were pink, purple, and pale blue. Anything rainbow was great, too. I mean, all my barbies and My Little Ponies were pretty in those colors. But I worshiped my Mom. Still do, actually. So green it was. Wow. So that's why I'm a tomboy. Kidding! LOL. Anyway, ending my digression, this rose is special. 'Cause it's a fighter. I was so certain that it was dead that I dragged it off to the side of the yard and left it in the shade. The 24 square feet of sun we get is prime real estate, and I wasn't going to waste it on a rose whose leaves were turning lacy and yellow. I guess that's what it needed, was to just be left alone. Hmmm, sounds like some kinda life lesson there. I'd take free food and fussing everyday, but this rose is independant. And dang purty. It shot up four feet for this flower, and there's two more on the way. I moved it back to the main part of the garden, but I pretend not to notice it... until I go crazy mountain paparazzi on it!!! Haha!
My cucumbers also seem to be on some kind of "go your own way" trip. This one seems to be planning to go straight to pickle without stopping in cucumberdom. And this other one can't make up it's mind which way to grow. Must be a Pisces. Luckily no slugs or deer have discovered them, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. I'm going to put some cayanne pepper on 'em, hope that works. My squash are putting out mad amounts of humungous blooms, but the flowers keep falling off :( so no veggies are growing. Little booger heads. I have a mind to just shove them off to the side of the garden and leave them to DIE. Wait... that might just work, huh. Heehee.
The vindictive gardener, haha. I'll show YOU, sweet pea!! And you there! Tomatoe! You didn't think I saw that, did ya! I have eyes in the back of my head you know! Maybe I'll bring out a cutting board, haha! Ooookay, stopping now. Who's for cocktails?

Secrets on the Mountain

I felt kinda down today, so I went for some self prescribed nature time. Trees are my spirit animal, heehee. Look at that beauty. Yowza. I knew there would be SOMETHING cool to see, there always is. And just breathing in the scents of leaves and dirt... aaaaaaaah. I can't go hiking and TRY to relax, I have to let nature distract me from my worries. And not only do I feel much better, darned if I didn't see all kinds of nifty stuff too. Like this garter snake. S/he was a fairly little one, maybe 18 inches.

My cats, powerful hunters, didn't even see it, haha. I am too skittish to pick one of these up, ever since the time an alligator lizard bit my finger... and wouldn't let go! Traumatizing! Maybe if I'd had gloves. I did pet it though, far from the head, 'cause I wanted it to move. It wouldn't. It probably hoped the crazy mountain paparazzi would just go away. Finally it moved though, zipping into a hole in a log. At which point Lilly was like, "OMG? What was that?? Sniffity sniff sniff. I pet her, and she jumped about five feet. Ooops heehee. Mean.

Then I wanted to explore somewhere new, so I found the least steep part of the cliff side of the ridge and cautiously headed down. And I found the most magical place, I knew it was my secret place, like in The Education of Little Tree, how every one needs their own quiet nook where time drifts and the zen flows and and you feel the Great Energy, or god, or whatever it is.
I felt like I could just sit there forever and become part of the mountain. Except then my kitties heard something. They're my indicators, right? Mostly when they hear something and get all attentive, it's a bird, or a leaf, or a fly. It's when all THREE look that my armpits dampen, the adrenaline surges, and the zen goes right out the window. My mouth dries up and I swallow roughly. I cup my hands to my ears in a feeble attempt to enhance my puny human hearing. No good. I remember the story of a woman who was attacked by a mountain lion when jogging alone, and she somehow fought it off with a lucky pocket knife shot to the eye. How rangers found it later, dead from the wound (I still think poor thing, BAD me). And I plan to stand up as ginormously threatening as I can and roar with beastial fury at any cougars that dare eyeball my meaty thighs. RARR! Then, there is movement in the leaves to my right. Just as my stomach drops and practically rolls down the cliff, Pheonix pounces!! Yes. It was a bug. A really gross looking inch long bug thing. Mmmm hmmm. I RULE! I figured it was time to head home.
On the way back, I found this log in the path. It had fallen sometime during my futile listening for boogeymen. I guess if a tree falls, Hermitgrrl doesn't hear it. I threw my foot in there for scale refrence. It WAS a log, sheesh! So I wear size ten, and my feet DWARF LOGS. I LIKE my feet... even if it's annoying finding shoes with which to clad them. And yes, sketchers are totally approved hiking footwear, you didn't know that? Okay, I have boots, sometimes I just can't be bothered :P. Anyway, to make a short story long, my chakras are now realigned. My boat is floating. Huzzah for nature! (Except if it wants to eat me. Scary-ass bug.)

Mommydad

Pheonix and Lilly do NOT like the kittens. Clarence was not amused either, but he at least didn't hiss at them. Look at those babies. How could you not love them? I guess if they were daring to eat off MY food dish I'd be, mmm welll, okay I'd squeal at how cute they are. But I understand Lilly and Pheonix don't appreciate what they see as threats to their territory.
What's sad is that the kittens LOVE my cats. They want attention from the bigger kitties a LOT more than they want some nasty human loving them. Unless the human is offering a morsel of something tasty. Anyway, since Clarence doesn't make threatening noises at them, he's their favorite. Literally, they come running when he comes inside. And finally, an agreement was reached. Posterior regions were to be sniffed, at the same time, and everyone that was either a kitten or Clarence would get along. They proceeded to carry out the contract. And immediatly after, one kitten was nuzzling Clarence's belly looking for milk and he was licking her head. THE CUTENESS. I almost cried as she purred her little heart out and rubbed all over him and he licked her round lil head.
Now Mil and Mab, aka stinky terd and other terd (in the nicest possible way, of course- that's endearing... right?) meow at Clarence like he's their mom... dad... mommydad.
He eats with them, and they are happy. And I am just about to pop with the insane precious sweet adorableness of it all!!!!!! Now when I try to coax them out from under the bed, instead of offering tasty tidbits, I tell them if they come out I'll get Clarence for them. Uh, I did mention that cats understand me, right? We got past the you reaching for the strait jacket thing, I'm pretty sure. Really, we did. Shhhhhh. Just look at the kittens! They are cute!! I am not sneaking out the back door while you're distracted! Okay, I definitely gotta get more sleep. But isn't that the bestest fluffiest bunny thang ever? It makes my heart all big and stuff.

OMG I'm ALIVE :D

Egads I hate computers! But I love the internet. Hmmmm. Yes, I suddenly (4 days later) had this crazy idea: call my internet provider... GASP! The madness! The sponteneity (I'm not even going to look that word up). I'm like a LOOSE CANNON. Whew, sorry, giddy with internet access here. It seems my router is corrupting my modem. Offering cigarettes, and vodka in plastic bottles when I'm not looking. So much has happened in my tiny universe!! ( Obviously the computer problem getting solved is one thing heehee yay) Well, Saturday, I delivered a truckload of Harry Potter books... I swear, it was better than christmas!! The happiness! The smiles, the talk of a nation united in something good- I'm not kidding. One woman, mid forties-ish, I kid you not, could NOT stop giggling the entire time I was typing in the delivery confirmation number for her TWO copies. It made me feel pretty good, though. I wish all my days at work were so joy bringing.
I was pretty stressed about missing a delivery, though, cause you KNOW the ruckus woulda been raised if some one didn't get their book! LOL It was worth all the smiles. And then I decided the roof needed sweeping, see how littered it was? REAL exciting, I know. But I could only do the uphill side cuz the other side was too scary. And then I noticed that half of the roof is covered in such old shingles they're coated in moss, and I saw all the dust flying up and I thought, what if those are ASBESTOS shingles??!!?? And I got a huge adrenaline rush and broke out in sweat and got the heck down from there. So there's a big pile where I stopped. I'm such a hypochondriac. And scared of doctors. Great combo!
Then yesterday, there was a bird racket outside, and a baby learning to fly had been discovered by the kitties. I scooped it up, (sorry, didn't grab my camera) and tried to find it's nest, but I couldn't. So I strung an old hamster cage up, with the top open, and put it in there. I thought maybe it's parents could swoop down in... and... I donno. I didn't know what else to do. It died. :*( I was thinking how nature flows and predators cull the sick and weak and the herd is strengthened as a whole because of it. How this makes humans and their trophy hunting.. umm, WRONG. Hunt for food, ok, but taking the strongest/biggest ? Just to stick it's head on your wall? If we aren't going to reintroduce predators, it is human responsibilty to keep the herd strong, but that means doing it by nature's law ( I vote for wolves and cougars). But then I was wondering if trying to save a baby bird that made a mistake is wrong. Am I then saving the weak and weakening the flock? Hmmm.... Well, I can't not try to save a baby critter. Just can't turn my back. Nope. Sooo... Who's gonna rock me to sleep tonight?