Street Money Update! With Canadian Money! Finally!
Oh yeah! We got it. We are representing from across the globe. Sort of. All on the way to school! Obviously no one scours the streets for loose change along the walking route.
One penny in the mini-golf parking lot (see posts after this) and all the rest in the streets of our town.
We found 6 mangy pennies, one chewed up dime, one perfect quarter and, here comes that international flavor, one Canadian penny!!
Finally we can add the “Canadian” total to our totals!
So if that’s not confusing enough, the total total is: One cent, Canadian. Forty-two cents, American.
The 42 gets added to the year total and the one cent gets its own listing! Click it here for the update.
House party explosion all over the ground! New feature! Back-to-school Special!
These are the odd things we found on the ground walking to school. They seemed so random to me that I had to take the pictures coming home.
Just think of all the fun we could have with this for the next YEAR!!
I’m always thinking of you guys! Where else on the internet can you find pictures of things that make absolutely no sense whatsoever and have no meaning to anyone at anytime in any life???
Candle Number 1
Spoon. Just laying in the street. I know. It's weird.
Candle Number 2. A block away. Carried and dropped? Or...?...what?
Kid Key. It's a baby toy. Stevie says her new brother Gavin has one. All by itself in the grass. Sad baby.
Thursday. Friday. Weekend. Monday. And all the other days after that…
Wednesday post had to be at one am, because the real world has spun back into motion.
I’ve been on hold for the last year. Preparing, but not actually doing. And here it is.
Thursday. First day of school for kids. Last day of summer for mom. It was a half day, decent weather except for the morning when it rained at the bus stop. Just enough to soak my son for his first time back on the bus since 2nd grade. Yes, I went to the bus stop with him (Sister came too!) and no, we weren’t the only ones. Seems all the moms come out for the first (and second) day of school. My son didn’t care. He even gave me a kiss goodbye. In front of other people. I feel very fortunate (I truly do) to have such a nice boy. An hour later, we were out again. Stevie and I, walking her to school. She is fifth grade now. Top of the school chain! It’s a quiet walk this year. All the fifth graders from last year are gone now. On the bus. And that is what made up most of the kids on the street. One more year and she’ll join her brother at the Jr. High.
Profitable though, to take them out. Found a lot of loose change and some odd items for the next posts; Street Money and Odd Items.
After school we went to play mini-golf. The very last afternoon of summer and all its ease. Then we came home and waited for morning. Ha. Not really. The kids played outside until dinner and the BF’s friend came back (sunshine and blue skies) and fixed the roof pipe. Ten minutes. Done. It’s nice when there isn’t a typhoon trying to sweep you off the roof to your death! And don’t worry. There’s a picture. Observe:
Then, Friday. Full day. Boy on the bus. Girl walking. More change. Another odd item. This time the rain waited to pour down on Mason when he got off the bus walking home. I managed to get all the laundry done, pay the bills, organize my school papers and start the prep work. The nursing starts immediately. You don’t ease into the pool, you jump straight in. (Not with the people yet, just in the water. No worries.) Anyway, it’s good. I have some reading and vocab and, oh no, here come the kids. Mom on hold. Kids take the front. Papers to sign, homework (they jump in too) and a snack. And back to me. But I want to type. So here it is. I have a few days of catching up to do.
I’ll just end it here and post more pictures! I can’t concentrate on a good conclusion because Stevie turned on Hannah Montana and I swear to God and all things holy or hellish, that damn show makes me laugh out loud and sucks me in faster than a low flying goose in an airplane engine. To borrow a phrase from a hillbilly soliloquy. Those Cyrus folk can sure turn a phrase. Hardy har har.
Severe Weather Wednesday
It’s all about tornado’s, fierce lightning strikes and those crackling, rumbling, low-in-the-throat, crashing, thunder rolls. And what’s worse is when the wind picks up out of nowhere, a leaf here and there, a branch on the roof, another branch…a limb…holy hell! And your BF’s friend is trying to do you a favor and fix your WW II, rooftop, chimney pipe that is crumbling to shit, but it’s pouring down rain and the clouds are moving fast across the sky looking like they are taking aim directly at the soaking wet guy kneeling on a high roof holding sheet metal pieces, a screwdriver and a drill. Not good. Pretty damn scary actually.
I appreciate the attempt, for real, but I can’t have him being killed in the effort. Rain is one thing, this was another.
And the day started out so…semi-sunny. Storms were predicted. I went to school. Got the final info before the real work begins. Have some assignments. Reading. The usual. I feel good though. It’s the same at school, semi-sunny then storms. (To definitely mix metaphors. See Zero Effect) Mind set is what they talked about today. (And by “they”, I mean all our teachers that we met today, the speeches, the handouts, and the rundown of the schedule and how the classes are actually coordinated. All the good stuff before you are bumping around in the halls looking lost and feeling like a failure. Graduation will never come.) “They” said, “Think of yourself as the nurse. In all future questions, studies, clinicals, tests…you will be referred to as the nurse. The program doesn’t ask what you will do in two years when you become a nurse, it asks what you will do right now as the nurse. That’s a tough mind game. But not as tough as this, also told in a story, (from my memory to the page):
“An evil wizard was always trying to get rid of the beloved prince. The wizard was always thinking of ways to outsmart the prince and show him for a fool to the rest of the kingdom. But the prince was smart and he knew the wizard was always tricking. One day the wizard had a plan that couldn’t fail. He would hold a bird in his hand and ask the prince if it was dead or alive. If the prince answered alive, the wizard would crush the bird to death and show the dead bird proving that the prince was wrong. And if the prince said dead, the wizard would let the bird fly away to prove his error. The plan could not fail. So the wizard, in front of all the kingdom, said, “Prince, is the bird in my hand dead or alive?” And the prince thought about it, knowing he was being tricked somehow, and answered the wizard finally, “It is what you make it.”
“This adventure, and it is an adventure, you are about to embark on, is only what you make it. You hold in your hand the power to make it anything you want. To give and take what you will from the next few years. How much effort or how little effort you devote to this goal. It’s all up to you. No one can force you to participate or not. You will have in your hands the power to care and to comfort, and the power to heal the sick. But you will also have the power to make someone even sicker and to possibly even kill them if you are not very careful. Is it scary? It should be. But it is worth all the sweat, every drop of blood, and every shed tear”
So they say.
Truly.
I may not have it written word for word, but that was the basic story and summary. The woman who spoke it is very powerful, but quiet to listen to. She is very calming, while at the same time, managing to scare the poop out of you. But I feel that it’s all true. Why would they lie? It’s hard. But the reward is great. That’s what they say. That’s all and that should be enough. Everything else after is extra. I believe it. I worried about the whole life/death, mistake/error, kill the patient thing, and the teacher said that we should be worried. We should always be a tiny bit wary and prepared for what could happen, because anything can happen at any moment and at any place. Now isn’t that comforting? Luckily, amazingly, and more miraculously, it’s a wonder things don’t go bad more often than they do. It’s a fine line.
But I think that is enough for tonight. It’s late, and my kids have their first day of school, and I need to get up to be with them. My daughter is fine. Same school, same friends, same schedule. She’s the top class now! But my son is in Jr. High. New school, the bus (again), new classes, new schedules, new teachers, new students. Small fish in the big pond!
So, the weather is calm right now, the storm has passed for the next few hours. They say the morning might be rough, but then smooth sailing through all next week. Is this a weather report or a damn soul-searching, reflection-on-a-life-yet-lived, or what? I need to lighten it up with some kind of image. This is just the thing to restore your faith in my (ill-advised representation) sense of humor and shallow/callous self.
When we went to the zoo, so many days ago, (more pictures, I swear.) we got a few pictures of the lions. The animals were really animated that day. Like, ALL of them. It was weird. I have video of the apes and they were acting crazy. (You Tube soon, I swear.) Usually they just lay around looking like they all want to commit suicide, but for some reason, everyone was jacked up and pacing or jumping or chasing or playing…whatever the various species to do to get us humans close enough to attack. And the lion was working it! He was walking back and forth in front of this “viewing” window. Right against the glass. Stopping, looking, staring (evilly and maliciously) most likely devising some way to get from where he was to where we were. Well, not us, exactly. We were waa-aayyy in the back, trying to figure out what the lion was up to. The lady lion was trying to get a ball out of the water. But the man lion had something cooking. You could just tell. Stevie would barely let me take the pictures I took because she was sure that the lion was about to chuck it all, go for broke and try to bust out of that glass and kill us all.
At any rate, when you think about it like that, these pictures are kind of funny. The people are so colorfully dressed and so interested and amazed by the lion being so close, that I have no doubt, any one of them would say they were completely surprised and shocked that the nice little kitty would try to hurt them, even while he was chewing on one of their legs or ripping out their intestines. But you judge for yourself.
Curious animal/performer/vegetarian, aka, Alex from Madagascar OR bored/angry/ bloodthirsty, carnivorous lion, hell-bent for destruction?
Look into his eyes and then decide.
Oh!! Isn't he cute?!?!
All I see is: lunch, lunch and more lunch!
Won't all those colorful clothes, torn to shreds, covered in blood and scattered all over the ground, add that extra oomph! to the news story later when they pan the scene 50 times for our sick sense of viewing enjoyment??
Snack time! You know that lion is NOT posing for a picture. He's thinking, "I could get a head AND an arm."
The picture BELOW ↓, was taken after he walked away from the window to go take the ball away from the lady lion, in between canvassing for people. She would get it out of the water and he would roll it back in. But not that last time. He finally quit that bitch and took the ball and rolled it right off the rock wall, into the protective moat that separates the people from the lions. Then he went and laid on a rock. Playtime was over. That’s when I took my picture.
Dumb-ass, crazy humans. I'll kill them all as soon as I get big enough.
Feel better? Me too!!
Sweet dreams! Goodnight! Don’t let the man-eating lion bite!
Cruise Night Random Shot
Mostly because I liked the color of the car. It’s cool, but it’s not a Dodge (or a Chevy) More later!
Day Quote (For the BF) I’m not the only one!
I never deny; I never contradict; I sometimes forget.
—Benjamin Disraeli
Dodge Nemesis from Cruise Night
It’s kind of old news I guess. It’s been about two weeks since our big bike trail ride, sushi and a car show. Since I have limited time, I’m throwing the Chevy Camaro out here.
I started this car feature with the express intent of ONLY having the new Dodge Challenger, but now it’s like an obsession to match up the Dodge with the Chevy. So here’s another Camaro for the site.
Surprisingly, there was no Challenger at this car show. I thought for sure someone would have a new one and drive it over. If I get home early enough tonight I’ll post the rest of the pics and cars. There’s a new feature coming! Just for the BF! Stay tuned!
just shy of pretty 