I want a refund!
One hundred degrees of blistering sunshine and heat stroke have been replaced by 70 degrees of overcast and drizzle. NOT that I am complaining. Too much.
My air conditioner is OFF. Money saved.
BF is at work. Rode his bike there because it’s so nice and dry today. Hmmm. I guess rain-riding experience is necessary. Still…
My kids are gone. They went to the beach. Again, because it was supposed to be nice and hot. They may or may not be in tornado conditions along the shores of Lake Michigan in Indiana. I don’t know. It’s probably not a good thing when you have to rely on Facebook for the status of your children. BUT, I do trust who they are with and it is just threat of rain right now. Apparently the super heat wave that rolled in down from the north last night and caused us all that trouble, swooped up all the hotness and carried it away to the east somewhere. Cause it sure ain’t here.
I, on the other hand, had many plans for this day of hot and alone. I did get up early. Check. I did shower, shave, hygiene, blah blah blah. Check. I did pay one bill. Check. I did do one load of laundry. Check. And this is where the happy story ends. I am at an impasse. I need to study, but I want to drink. I need to balance the checking account, but I want to drink. I need to finish the laundry, but…you get the idea. Just a little. Not drunk. Just for…fun? Because it is July 1, it’s Friday, and I have, truly, nothing to do today? I don’t need to drive anywhere. I wouldn’t anyway. And it’s not even hot! And that makes it all the better! Now I won’t get overly sweaty or tipsy too fast! Plus, I can still do that other stuff while drinking.
Then it’s settled. I am inviting my friend Jack over and we are going to BS thru the afternoon. Thank you sounding board/inner conscious/internet. However, I better get on that check book thing first. Numbers tend to go all loopy after a few hours of the sippy juice. Later.
Oops, wait, not raining now
Sky is trying to do that.
Yes, I am wondering too…when the H*LL did this become a weather blog?? Well, it’s easy, that’s for sure. I have other crap. Exciting crap! It’s just that this is fast.
Stay with me here. I will NOT say there won’t be anymore weather (I mean, c’mon, I have a rainbow picture! A Rain. Bow. And flowers and birds and stuff), but I’ll throw in some random things too. I have this big idea that there should be a theme. Something that flows. Linking one post to another. HA. I need to embrace the fact that my life and my brain are running on several different tracks, and they don’t really go to the same places. The theme is that there is no theme. Random shots. Random thoughts. The only common thread is that they will all be here on this site! Happy Thursday!
Since it’s raining again…
It’s a good reason for me to post these pictures that I have from the last few rainstorms. This is not near my house. This is by my sissy’s. She gets the better rain. The kind that floods more streets and fills up low places. We get it too, but not so severe. And anyway, I happened to have my camera that day.
Except for a few little things to do today, band practice and bowling, I think I will try and work on this site. I should be studying for my most important test, but I guess the paperwork is a bit messed up and it may take longer to get a date, so I have a few days/weeks (??) of extra studying I’ll be able to get in later. Procrastination is a bitch. It gets me every time. But I work well under pressure so we will see.
Guess I’m running another race cold
And slow. Thank goodness for the obstacle part. It’s a chance to stop.
School, weather, wheezing and laziness are the only excuses I can come up with at this moment. I’m sure I can think of more later on tonight. Especially if it rains again. It’s supposed to and it’s so chilly outside now. Probably shouldn’t use rain and mud as an excuse since that’s kind of the whole point of the Warrior Dash, but I just did! I still have a week to get outside and run around a little. Besides it’s only 3 miles of running, broken into easy chunks by the obstacles, and you can walk it if you want to. I promise to train religiously for the 5-Mile at Labor Day. I’d like to keep that under an hour.
I have to go eat some leftover Hooter Wings right now and then I’ll post more later. Oink.
More floods on the way
This is not actually MY yard. It’s my sissy’s. Every time it rains for more than 10 minutes her backyard turns into a pool. It flows fast and right on out to the street and down the block, but still, what a pain. I have more pictures of the whole yard full that I will post randomly because I am still safe here on my hill. But they say the rain is coming. We are already at saturation stage. I wonder where all that water ends up going? Hmm.
Anyway, this is me wasting precious study time as usual. I really should be taking my mini tests and reading material but oh…the lure of the internet!
Answer this for me:
(This is the lead in): I was on this thing called Facebook today and I am “friends” with Pat Tomasulo from the WGN Morning News. Yes, I know. I am already against being friends with people that I am not really friends with. Plus he’s on TV and that is prob kind of lame on its own because who the hell am I right? But anyhow, they let us be their friends so whatever. So today I was watching the news, they said something kind of funny and I went onto his Wall and posted a comment and suggestion for one of his popular Pat-Down things. And I felt SUPER lame the whole time I was typing it and kept starting and stopping and deleting and retyping; at any rate, I finished the thought and left it there. Now here’s the question part:
Does anyone else feel like a complete ass posting stupid things on “celebrity” sites, knowing that most likely they will never read them? And if they do, they are prob thinking, “dumb ass fans”?? Is it just me? Does anyone else even post on general sites?
I really need to re-direct my brain back to contributing-to-the-world and not making it any dumber. My head hurts!
And we’re back down to ZERO
Not zero exactly, but I would say that a FIFTY degree drop in temperature in the last 48 hours is enough to get some of us back on the sick list. Windows were open but now it’s too cold. HA. I love free cool air.
Sadly, our temp change came with a giant thunderstorm last night and tons of rain. So much water that it flooded streets, creeks, ponds, etc., and knocked out electricity all over the place. I was a lucky one. Power and a house on the high ground. It’s night now and calm. I think I will go lay down in my big bed in this perfect sleeping weather and dream of temperate, 75 degree days and nights, 24/7, year round.
Early Christmas Eve…
8 am Chicago time. It’s about 32 degrees and drizzling the best icy rain you can get anywhere in the midwest. I know all around us gets snow but we get rain that freezes everything in its place. It looks pretty, covering all in a transparent shell, but it is hell to walk or drive on. Still, it’s peaceful. I’m inside though. In a few hours the two day blitz starts and for my kids this year they have three days of travel…it just worked that way. They are ready. We stayed up late making food for the days to come, mock chicken legs (its a polack thing–so delicious–always tweaking the formula trying to get them to taste just like my dads–they never do), pierogis, apple slices, cookies, the usual, just like you!…so I am enjoying the silence for a few more minutes. Drinking some coffee, of course, just thinking about…how nice it all is. To be mostly healthy, mostly happy and able to enjoy the small things, not just today, but everyday. I’m not really religious or spiritual much, but I wish the same for you. Have a safe journey if you are traveling around, or a nice warm drink for me if you’re not!, and thanks for spending a few minutes with me and mine today!
Yes, it's a white tree. Hello...Polish....we like it. And it fits in our limited space! It's pretty when its lit up which you will see later today. We keep the lights on all night tonight....
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!
just shy of pretty 