ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- First Signs of

ROUND ROBIN PHOTO CHALLENGE -- First Signs of Spring

Where I live, in northwestern Oregon, the first signs of spring begin with the daffodil leaves and stems coming up, starting in mid-February. By the time I noticed them this year, around the first of March, the daffodils were starting to bloom. They are lovely, as the picture here shows:



The following is a photo of blossoms on a tree to the south of my driveway. I have no idea what kind of tree it is, as it bears fruit that reminds me of what a crabapple ought to look like but many years ago, when my mother- and father-in-law lived here and I lived down the road, I picked some of the fruit from this tree, thinking they WERE crabapples, and tried to make jelly out of them. My father-in-law chuckled royally about that and said that they most definitely were not crabapples. I can't remember what he said they were. But the blossoms are pretty! LOL!



Part of my lawn is covered with brown leaves, and in spots, little violet-like flowers are coming up through them, as below:



Just about my favorite sign of spring, though, is when the camellias planted on the north and south sides of my house come into bloom. It seems that those on the north side are blooming more profusely and earlier than those on the south side. The following pictures are of a group of camellia flowers from the north side of my house, and then a single blossom on the south side. (Regarding the spelling of camellia, I have looked it up and it can also be spelled "camelia", but my spell check seems to favor the spelling with the two "L's" in this post.) It's wonderful when the camellias bloom because I can see them from my kitchen window and that particular plant has grown so tall, reaching the top of the house, that I can see camellia flowers from my upstairs office window as well.





It has been known to snow in March in the past, and I once got a picture of my camellia flowers with snow on them, but I am thinking positive that this year, there will be no snow in March. ;-)

At the Round Robin Photo Challenge site, you will find links to other blogs participating in this challenge. Their entries are always creative and interesting!

IS THERE A CAT

IS THERE A CAT PSYCHOLOGIST IN THE HOUSE?


The other night, past both Socks' and my bedtime, Socks was here in the office with me. She wandered around for a while, then settled down between my keyboard and monitor and started going after my typing fingers with her extended claws, which stuck into my skin. I tried to get her to stop and she started biting me. I had time to end the e-mail I was writing to a friend with the comment, "Socks is being a monster," after which I picked her up as she continued to claw and bite. I set her on the office bed, turned off the light, went out and shut the door.

The next day, I mentioned the above episode to several of my online friends. This isn't the first time I had complained about her biting, I might add. An online friend suggested in response that since Socks continued to bite, it might be a good idea to take her to a cat psychologist or animal behaviorist of some kind.

I thought about it but I had to conclude that Socks has in general gotten better and it is rare that she attacks my hands like that. Also, living out in the country, there aren't cat psychologists in the area, and in fact my even broaching the subject with my vet might easily bring a reaction of amusement.

I think I can figure out on my own why she reacts like she does, and it very likely could go back to her being abandoned by her mother when she was so tiny, and having to adjust to my household with two established cats in it, especially Stevie, who acts like she's queen of the roost and started off disliking and showing her displeasure towards Socks from the very beginning. These are just my ideas, though -- if anyone has any other good ones or any solutions, please let me know.

I have thought about trying to give Socks away but I am attached to her and I have seen great improvement in her, and especially, I wouldn't want to inflict her biting episodes on anyone else.

*****

There is a great deal of significance to me in the cross graphic above, as I have been thinking a lot about today being Good Friday and what that means in the Christian world. There are various ways of marking it in different churches, especially with a service. My church, Zion Mennonite, will be having a communion and foot washing service. I attended this service once many years ago, and although I understand the meaning behind the foot washing (as Jesus washed his disciples' feet), I found that I wasn't real comfortable having someone wash my feet. I guess that was my own particular quirk -- it just felt too personal to me. Also, it seemed like most of the women had arranged in advance to do the foot washing with a friend, which hadn't occurred to me, so I wound up with a lady who I thought was nice but who I didn't know at all well. Being a rather shy person, I would have felt better if I could have done the ceremony with a person that I knew and considered a friend. I had a Catholic friend tell me this morning that Catholics also do foot washing, which I had never known. It's all very interesting and meaningful, but I prefer to observe it from a distance.

*****

The following picture was sent to me by my son Jeff and is the original of a copy that he sent to Shutterfly to have thank you notes made up for gifts from granddaughter Emily's 2nd birthday party on February 23rd. I had scanned in the shot from the thank you as I thought it was so cute and sent it to a myriad of friends, thinking that I wouldn't be able to blog it since it was a Shutterfly-produced card. I mentioned this to Jeff via e-mail and that's when he sent me this original, which he said would work fine on my blog, so for those of you who didn't see it, here is the picture of Emily with her thank you sign:
























I was happy to receive a lot of responses to my mailing it out last night, with e-mails coming in from family and friends I haven't heard from in a while. Answering them will keep me busy for a while!

*****

Sen. Barack Obama was in Portland for a rally this morning. I watched a little bit of his speech during times when I was taking brief breaks from being on the computer. I like him a lot. He is the only political figure I can think of in recent years who I would have even considered attending a rally to see and hear. However, I do get bored with political subjects quite easily, so at least -- here at home -- I can turn the channel if I find my interest waning quickly. LOL!

YAY FOR CHASE!I have two personal credit

YAY FOR CHASE!

I have two personal credit cards with Chase, one of which I use all the time and the ot6her is rarely, if ever, used. Late yesterday afternoon, I got a phone message regarding the one that I don't use, and in the process of listening to the message on my voice mail, I managed to cut it off. I immediately dug out my card and called the customer service number on it. I was asked identification questions and then connected with the Chase security department.

I was asked if I had used the card to make a purchase of $2.01 on March 17th. I said that I hadn't. Once more, I answered the security questions and then I was told that the card had been canceled, and a new one would be sent within 5 days. I also will receive a fraud form to fill out and send back. There will be no need to pay for the charge.

At first, I didn't understand why the charge was so tiny, but then I remembered that often ID thieves will try a small purchase to see if they can get away with it, and if they do, they will go on and make large purchases. I'm glad that Chase was on the ball and caught this case of fraud!

*****

Yesterday wasn't the best day in other ways, too. On my Flickr site, someone posted a comment to the picture I have there of a chili dog I made one day for dinner. The commenter said they were into chili without beans and that the chili dog in the picture I had posted looked "NASTY"! How kind and considerate this person was, right? (Heavy sarcasm here.) I immediately handled the situation the way I did with the Italian lady who didn't like my spaghetti and who was very insulting about it -- I changed the setting on the chili dog picture so that only friends and family can view it. I foiled him/her. Hee hee!

Then last night I received an e-mail from a friend in which she tried to negate what the grief counselor had told me to do in listing the good and bad areas of Mom's parenting. This lady told me to "Just forgive." Her pronouncement bothered me at the time I received it but I slept on it (and had a good night's sleep). This morning, in thinking about it, I was angry. I dealt with it by telling her that of course I will forgive Mother but the grief counselor is a professional who knows what she is doing.

I also had an e-mail from my sister Kathy yesterday who said that the house market in Twin Falls is good, as far as the future sale of Mom's house goes, but that with the expenses that need to come out of the sale, us kids might wind up having to pay some of the final costs if the sale of the house doesn't cover them. Ack! I have savings but I hope that this doesn't come about; or, if it does, that the costs aren't too much.

So I have been dealing with some heavy-duty feelings. Perhaps I need to be less open in general about what I am going through regarding the grieving process. If I write less about it here, that will be why.

*****

I had a commenter yesterday invite me to write about my experiences with Mother, and I went to his site (thanks, Greg L) and saw that he is wanting stories with an inspirational slant. I'm not sure that my story fills that bill, especially as it is still ongoing during the grieving process, but I will think about it and see if I have a story that I could write and submit. He said that they don't have to be all positive as long as there is a lesson learned in the story.

*****

Hopefully, today will be a better day, although I expect my light bill. I doubt that it will be nearly as high as in recent months, due to my turning down the heater in the pump house as well as being able to use the one here in the office less. Here's hoping!

MAYBE WHY I DIDN'T

MAYBE WHY I DIDN'T POISON MYSELF? ;-)

I wrote a few days ago that I had used some light mayo from my fridge that, when I checked the jar label afterwards, said the expiration date had been 02. I was very surprised and shocked by that, especially since it didn't taste bad and I didn't get sick.

I threw the jar out and today I bought the replacement. When I checked the jar, the last numbers on the expiration date were again 02. Before them were the numbers 1010. (That had to be for October 2010.) So I dug through the garbage and found the coffee-ground-covered bottle of light mayo that I had thrown out. The expiration date on it was 0307 (March 2007). No wonder I hadn't poisoned myself with it! Whew! The old jar was still ancient enough to leave in the garbage, as it had to have been bought a couple of years before the expiration date, like the new jar was.

In telling an online friend about the old light mayo when I thought it had expired in 02, her first thought was to say there must be all sorts of preservatives in it. Even for it to last two years, of course there are some preservatives there. They don't bother me as much as the thought of suffering from salmonella poisoning does, though.

Another online friend mentioned once that she wouldn't buy mayo because it would only last a week or two in the fridge. I didn't have a response to her post, which was on one of the blind lists I'm on. I wasn't the expert on the aging of mayo then that I am now. -G- I don't know what kind of mayo she was getting (she lives in Canada) but it should have lasted a lot longer than that.

At any rate, I felt much safer eating my egg salad sandwich for lunch today. If anything disturbs my system in the next few hours, it will likely be the Glucerna chocolate caramel bar I just ate. ;-)

*****

If I'm remembering correctly, I paid $3.39 a gallon for gas this morning at the Shell station in town, and filling from just under 1/2 tank, it cost me about $36.00. Thankfully, I don't have too far to travel in the coming few weeks, until my coast trip the 13th to 16th of April. I will have to be prepared to pay a lot more for gas during that time, as I like to drive along the coast and once again see the lovely seaside vistas.

I came home from running my errands and not long after that, the propane truck came to fill up my propane tank. I am on the company's budget program so I wasn't too alarmed by the $435.00 for the 155 gallons it took to fill the tank. I was concerned about the 51 gallons left on my budget program, and I was left wondering what happened when those were used up. (My educated guess is that I will be paying a higher price for whatever amount of propane may be needed over and above those 51 gallons, as I expect I will have one more fill of the tank before summer.) At least, they once again remembered to come and fill it without my having to call and request it. Bully for them!

INCONSIDERATE CATSFor

INCONSIDERATE CATS

For some reason, today my cats Socks and Silver were romping and chasing and jumping all over (including on me) when I tried to nap, and thus I have wound up back in the office, running on adrenalin like I do when I am unable to rest as my medications command. I know napping isn't really an interesting topic but hopefully the pictures I took of those too little ruffians will make up for boring you in regards to my nap-time. ;-)

The picture below is what I found when I went downstairs a little while ago to see what those two kitties were up to. They were not in their usual spots in the living room, but instead Silver was on my bed and Socks was on my dresser, getting into old camera stuff (my old camera case, containing my old film camera, is up there, plus my old digital camera).



A little later on, I spotted Socks on one of the cat perches in the living room as shown, followed by Silver burrowed in pillows on the couch -- both of them were in poses that I hadn't seen before. I guess this is their day to be original.





Sometimes I call them "naughty cats", more in jest than seriousness, but today I think they pretty much approached being genuinely naughty! LOL!

*****

I have nausea now and again and I wonder if it is grief-related; I didn't ask during my appointment yesterday. I was told that if I could get out of bed and function, I was doing okay and that I was on track with what is expected after a major loss. (For those who don't know, I lost my mother on December 30th.) The counselor, Susan, said that replaying certain aspects of what had happened over and over again in my mind was very normal, too.

I was quite surprised when I mentioned now knowing if Mom had been fair in her will or not, or if she had left me with less of an inheritance due to our religious differences, and Susan recommended that I check with the Executor, my brother Frank, to find out as long as I could word what I said so that it was obvious I wasn't after money. I wrote him a note last night, saying exactly that about money, but that I wanted to know for emotional reasons, and received the answer from him this morning that we were all treated the same in the will. He indicated that there may not be much to share, and I can imagine that to be the case since the house is quite small and, when sold, there will be final expenses to come out of the sale amount. I do feel much better just knowing. Frank said to ask him any other questions I had, but I can't think of any more.

I was also given an exercise to do and the name of a helpful book, which I have ordered. I may do the exercise this afternoon or evening; I haven't decided. It may help to settle my mixed feelings down.

I asked her if she thought it would help me to talk about what I was experiencing with online friends, and she said that was entirely up to me. I have spoken with some people about it online but up until now I felt somewhat protective of what she and I talked about yesterday. I love my online friends and family but whether they mean to or not, some can get preachy or judgmental, and I get aggravated when that happens.

I will be going back to see her, most likely for the last appointment, in just over a month. It will be the week after I return from my April coast trip, which is something I am very much looking forward to despite the price of gas to drive out there.

At any rate, it was good to know that I'm on track in my healing process. Susan mentioned how very significant a mother is in our lives, and thus the difficulty most people have with that death, and actually that it is harder to heal when there are mixed feelings. I had heard that before and it seems to go along with what I am experiencing.

I ran a few errands this morning, and I am noticing that I seem to be more relaxed and less anxious these days, although I would still rather stay home (which, of course, isn't possible with my work and my personal needs for food and household supplies). Perhaps part of the tremendous anxiety I experienced for so long was due to Mom's many-year fight with kidney disease, and thus the dialysis she had to have. I felt similar anxiety when Steve was ill for 9 years with his chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

At any rate, I would encourage anyone who has suffered a difficult loss to have grief counseling. Susan is a social worker, and I don't believe they're too hard to find. In my HMO, they seem to be well-versed in bereavement issues. So far, I am very glad that I went in to see her yesterday. It's great when someone like this gives me a nudge that sends me in a beneficial direction.

NOT EVEN A WEE BIT OF

NOT EVEN A WEE BIT OF IRISH IN ME

It has been kind of a long day, with my appointment this morning and before that hunting down a year-at-a-glance 2008 vacation calendar for the business (which took stopping in two separate office supply stores). I came home and was on the computer for a little while, then realized a nap was definitely necessary. So I'm late posting this entry. I want and need to do so before St. Patrick's Day is over!

As the title states, I have no Irish in me at all. I have English, Swedish, Scottish, and maybe even some Norwegian blood (way back there) in me. I've always had a sense of fun about St. Patrick's Day, though. If I'm not mistaken, I used to make pancakes, tinting the batter green, on St. Patty's Day when the kids were young and at home. I guess I've always had somewhat of a weird sense of humor and been a little odd as a mother. LOL!

For those of you who are even a wee bit Irish, my best wishes are with you for a fun St. Patrick's Day! I envy you your corned beef and cabbage -- I will be back to eating a chicken breast (the last one I still have from the most recent batch I cooked) and a baked potato.

*****

Speaking of food, I hard-cooked some eggs the other evening and the next day, I got hungry for an egg salad sandwich made with the low fat mayo I had in the fridge. After I had made the egg salad and eaten the sandwich, I decided I had better check the expiration date on the jar of light mayo as it seemed to me that I had had it for a long time. Sure enough: The expiration date was September '02. LOL! I'm lucky it didn't make me sick! Amazingly, though, it is still good -- it looks like it's supposed to and tastes fine. Despite that, it is on my list to be replaced when I go shopping tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning!

THE GAME PLANDue to some

THE GAME PLAN

Due to some recommendations by a few online friends, I put "The Game Plan" in my Blockbuster Online queue a few weeks ago and it was sent to me this past week for watching. I had time last night to view it and my concluding feelings afterwards were mixed.

It stars Dwayne ("The Rock") Johnson as a selfish star football player who is confronted by a young girl played by Madison Pettis, who contends she is his daughter and is able to prove it. Naturally, the bulk of the movie consists of his trying to win a championship game while dealing with the fact that he has a little daughter, and it is done in a rather Disney way (but then it is a Disney movie) -- sometimes silly, generally unrealistic and exaggerated, but little Madison is a cutie and does a very good job in her role, while "The Rock" turns out to be a better actor than I would have expected.

One point that was brought up by a couple of my online friends after they watched it was that, if children viewed it, their parents should explain and elaborate on "The Rock's" key saying and mantra, "Never Say No." These friends felt it was important for children to know that sometimes it is important and necessary to say no. I think that would be a good thing to discuss with children who see this movie. As for me, I just have my 3 cats in my household, and although Socks was on top of the television set the other evening and looking down at the TV screen in fascination, I don't worry about the effect of this movie on them (although I wish sometimes that they knew the meaning of the word no). ;-)

I will probably give "The Game Plan" 3 1/2 stars out of a possible 5 when I rate it on Blockbuster. So take that as you will.

*****

The Ziggy cartoon above was once again sent to me by my friend, Lynne in Australia, and we both had the same reaction to it. I looked at it and concluded that it portrayed a very frightening idea, and then I noticed that Lynne had written a note below it, saying how scary it was. LOL!