Leaping lizards!

OK, I have tried to think about what to write here, and for now I am stuck (writer's block) so ah ha! I have figured out how to get my keyboard to sing, and that is to have this itty bitty post as a place holder.  Once I can come up with topics, anything, I will append it here.  I mean, how many times will I get to say "Happy New Leap Day."  I want to do something, write something, special.  Bye for now...

I went to see my new family doctor and and went over all the stuff in my file.  I am really
tired of having to dredge up the dates and who and what they were.  My memory wasn't very cooperative today and I felt like I needed remedial memory retrieve work.  But maybe getting my meds straightened out will point us in the right direction, I hope.  Meanwhile when my family asks me questions  I can say I don't remember.  Period..    Sometimes I remember the answer the next day, oh well. I resolve to beat myself up before going and writing details, and take it with me so I won't feel so scatter brained.  After all, I have 9 doctors, from B to W, And I don't see some of them more than once a year.) 

 

When making out your tax return , it's better to give than to deceive.

You would think that after 12 or 15 years of doing the income taxes I would be able to whiz right through them.  But our elected representatives in their infinite wisdom have in a major way amended the tax laws again, boo hiss.  Sigh.  Too bad bitching doesn't burn calories.

The temp hereabout has slowly crept up, but my enjoyment of it is blunted because the stinkbugs have slowly crept up too.  Horrible icky bugs, which are at least slow and they like to climb the walls which makes them easy to see.  If only they didn't fly (poorly) we could leave them to the cats, who occasionally get one on the floor what great fun.  The smell doesn't seem to faze them.

When I grew up in Miami FL I had a horror of cockroaches.  Palmetto bugs some people call them, because if you peel back a layer of a coconut palm tree you will find a nest of them, too gross to even think about.  They can grow to several inches in length, and are also half of that in width, and are flyers.  At night I could hear if there were one in the bedroom, their legs making clicker sounds, and I had to get up right then turn on the lights and search it out.  When N and I shared a bedroom at Mom's house (after our marriage, I hasten to add) I shrieked when I saw one in our suitcase.  N said (a little condescendingly, I thought) "I'll take care of it".  And when he lifted the top piece of clothing, there it was.  He let out a shriek to match mine, jumped back and dropped the clothing back into the suitcase, and said "THAT'S a roach??!!"  And I split before it could get between me and the door, and let N take care of it.  I've never seen a roach here in WV in the house, and very few outside as well.  But just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there...

This blog post is not the interesting and cheerful one I like to think I mostly make.  I read an article in BlogHer.com that lists suggested topics when the old brain stalls, and it was all either things I am not qualified to comment on (like,bragging on your beautiful granddaughter) or there are the ever-present  memes, the motivational ones that are less than "cool and empowering" and more like "condescending and trite" particularly the ones aimed at readers who are struggling with depression, etc.  So I will end this for today, wishing all of you an enjoyable day.

Bumpersticker for the day:  "Life is short.  Smile while you still have teeth."

Valentine's day

Yum!  I got three hearts filled with candy, and 3 Dozen roses (red, yellow and pink) And they are very fresh and have some fragrance. The cats have been very well behaved and leave the roses alone.  I have given up trying to get Family Tree Maker to work on the MacBook Air, I am not sure why it doesn't work; it is the way I set up FTM on the MacBook all those years ago, but not currently.  I can't run the FTM for MAC, because the version of the OS (El Capitan) is not functional, the blurbs on the box notwithstanding. And the partition for Windows seems to come and go.  Ah well, not a terrible crisis.

We got 8 inches of snow last week, I am so tired of winter.  I haven't been out of the house since my doctor's appointment last Monday.  Partly it is due to the ice on the driveway, and partly due to my nerves once we are underway.  If you try and leave space between yourself and the car ahead of you, another car will zip past us and get between in the "buffer" space.  I've got 4 wheel drive, and snow tires, so I can zoom along as if there were dry pavement, right?  Mutter mutter.

Old barn + old horse

Tonight the temp was 2 degrees, and I want to see that end too.  I love love the heated tack room in the barn, so the water is still liquid, and the hose works too.  Back when we had the old barn, we had to haul buckets of water from the bathroom.  Sometimes we had to fill each one twice, because they would drink the first bucket dry immediately.  And the stalls were open at the front, brrrr.  The new barn is pretty good looking, even from the road.

new barn

Time for bed again.
Bumper sticker:  "The last time I reached for the stars I pulled a muscle"

Winter moving into spring

Well. Old man winter has paid us another visit.  It is about 8 inches of snow as near as we can tell.  I hope this is the last of the snow, the state plows usually come through once maybe tomorrow.  I have been extra careful when I come and go in the Highlander.  Last year I fell and slid under the car which was running at the time and this winter I have practiced getting in and out.  I hate this toyota I didn't want it then and I sure do not want it now.  N asked if I liked it, there on lot.  I said "no"  and he went ahead and and bought it,  I have driven it once.  For 16 years I had my own car,  well, 3 Miatas:   a 1996, a 1999, and a 2002.  But once I retired the 2002 sat in the garage and any time I wanted to take it, the battery was dead.  Finally we sold it for a not-too-great amount, I couldn't stand to watch the guy drive away.  We still have the pickup truck, it probably gets driven about 7 times a year and it needs to be jumped every time too; why not trade it in instead of the Miata?

I've got to admit the Highlander goes better in the snow.  We can't drive a little bitty Miata,when the snow is higher than the car,  Not to mention it is rear wheel drive.

I watched the DVD for "Riddick" this afternoon which is pretty dated, but I liked it.  I couldn't get it to run on my computer (not a Blu Ray), It would play on the gigantic TV, but if a movie is gory, it is a lot easier to look away and turn the sound down when the screen is 7".  I know I am a wuss when it comes to decapitation, sharp machete and so on, but I just look away.  In the end I watched it on my little MacBook Air, now that I got a CD/DVD player for it.  One for Mac, 0 for PC.

We've been looking at the latest catalog for nursery plants.  How do they always arrive on a dreary snowy day?  So for we have narrowed a tree down to either a weeping cherry or one other whose name escapes me.  I will plant this in honor of Suzanne, who died last fall.  She always loved the blooms on everything,  When I was down in FL the last time, she showed me a night blooming cercus that only blooms at night with a fragrant bloom which dies in the morning. I miss her .

Bumper Sticker for the day:  "Honk if you love Jesus.  Text if you want to meet him."