Ahhhhhh.....Mi Casa

Ahhhhhhh....I'm home. Mi Casa.

Flowers, humidity, warmth. Trees, seafood! I ate 3 pounds of crab legs the other night with my grandson. Sushi abounds! And the best Cajun food I've ever wrapped my lips around.

What did I do besides eat? Well, got my hair done, magnificantly done and a great visit with Hattigrace, though I wish I would have had more time. Then my daughter and I went for a pedicure and I relaxed as I overlooked the Gulf and sipped elixers and tea.

Got the termite program underway! Watered and watered. The family is not really good at watering and I have big chunks of missing green in the lawn. I will try to sneak some fertizer on this afternoon. (Hubby hates the stuff, because then you have to mow more often!) Tomorrow will go to see the other grandkids and have a cookout if all goes well. Time is flying by and I haven't been everywhere I want to be.....but we'll see what the days bring. This trip I decided to leave most everything to God and not be freaked out over damage at Casa, spots on carpet, clutter, holes in lawn, and other things that are minor to family, friends, sunshine, and a happy heart.

The Other Side of the Earth

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2006/afghanistan_multimedia/

Don't know how I got here to the above (link) website, but I go in and view the awesome photos and listen to the update. Not much news here in the U.S. It seems like even horror can become mundane. I watch the above clip to see what is happening in Afganistan now. I have heard little recent news about the country that inspired "shock and awe."

Now I'm led into more thought. How are we EVER going to extract ourselves from A. and Iraq? We created a new source of drugs to flood our country with. We created an all-time national debt high. We have a whole new flood of injured young people who will have to come home (U.S.) and cope with diminished benefits.

We have traumatized countries, countries = people. People equal our responsibility. We will pay for these wars for a long, long time with much more than our dollars and our illegally "borrowed" trust fund known as Social Security.

Indian Paintbrushes

Well, today I will do it. I will pack! I promise!

What a glorious day outside. I am not going to spend much time on the computer. Will sparkle my car up and vacumn the inside. There is not enough time to go find a fishing stream, which is what is calling me today! No more horizon phobia!

These beautiful flowers are the Wyoming State flower, the Indian Paintbrush. They are hardy, brilliantly colored little patches in the prairie. Other patches of flowers are peeking out - white ones, yellow ones and purple ones. Summer is much dryer this year - no lavish displays this year!

VORTEX

What is wrong with me? Horizons are bothering me. I feel like I might fall off the end of the horizon. That's why I like Costa Rica. It is warm, encompassing, and I feel planted on the planet. I look at photos of places with wide expanses and horizons and out my own window, and I feel disconnected and full of anxiety. I can't pack for my trip. I am frozen. I tried Expedia to see if I could stay longer when I manage to get there and it would cost me $1,000 for two more days. I know I can get in my car, drive to the shuttle, then go on to the airport, but my feet feel like sandbags. My ankles are swollen and my knees hurt and I don't know why. I have lost the massage therapist's phone number. Maybe if I just go to bed and try again tomorrow.

Deliciously, snugglfy cool! It is now 67 degrees, and top was 71 degrees here today.

I drove a friend to the out-of-town doctor today and basically did nothing which is unusual for me not to be participating in cerebral mulching.

It was nice to get caught up on entertainment magazines, US World & News, gastrointestinal pamphlets, and Consumer Digest.

I am now totally convinced, since we have had 4 straight running days without 70 mile an hour wind, actually NO wind, that I need, NEED, a bicycle. A grand bicycle. I want strength. I want fitness. I also found a pair of walking sticks - L.L. Bean is the source. Yay! Go for it Nana. I want to discover places of solitude and great fishing, and places to do pastel work with my portable french easel.

The photo is Alcova Lake, easily accessed by road. Thinking only the strongest knees could make it up the dirt road up to the highway outta there! I'll start small. Tomorrow. Or when I can find THE BIKE.

Share with Me

Just had my first watermelon of the season. It was perfect.
I remember my grandma never buying a watermelon until the 4th of July "because they might not be good. " It was a big deal. On the 4th, we would all gather out under the huge old willow tree that I spent many hours in as a child, surveying my world and daydreaming.

The smell of huge bushes of wild yellow roses would pervade the air on one side, and lilacs perfumed our world from the other side. Sweet peas lavishly draped the chicken wire fencing around an amazing garden. Fried chicken, fried in a cast iron frying pan tasted heavenly. Garden leaf lettuce graced with bacon drippins' salted perfectly was the crowning touch.

Now, I buy watermelons when I feel like it and eat them when I feel like it until my stomach says, "stop it!" I wish I could have given you the red, inside view, but preserving my precious scanner is more important! Also I noticed a crack in the glass. How did THAT get there? Maybe the same way the windows got opened today while I was at work. I distinctly remember going about closing them all because of the "dust bowl" across the street. We have had three uncanny days without the howling Wyoming wind. Now, I know why in Florida I felt a panic with every lovely day that I could not get enough of that day! I could never get over that feeling despite all the lovely days in Florida. I remember ......... it is because there are not that many "perfect" days here.

The Sands of Time and Crime

Yep, this is where I live. Well, close by. Not sure anything is living in this landscape but diamondback rattlers. Remind you of Iraq? Me too. For the life of me, I can't figure out why the folks in covered wagons just didn't keep going. They must have been REALLY tired!

I don't know much about the dust bowl, but I think what little I do know, I am relating to. For some crazy reason, instead of building housing here, they are building motels, dozens of them! Which, when the "boom" is over, will sit empty and decay and make the town even uglier. (As is evidenced by falling down motels left over from previous countless boom cycles.)

Guess I'm feeling frustrated because I thought I could make a difference coming here to work in government. But it seems to be the "same old story." Haul out the resources, leave the land a dustbowl and the buildings empty. Do not provide for families. Come on in folks, to work in the energy fields. Buy a new huge diesel pickup and make it roar when you go down the road. Yeh, you're a stud, alright.

A Mexican National was recently arrested in the State for bringing 100's of pounds of meth in to sell to whites and Indians both, (this particular drug czar likes to destroy Indians particularly), more meth to kill our children. He got life, but is appealing of course. Meth is running over the borders with many nationals who are looking for a better life alright - and selling the number one murder drug is more profitable than working in the fields. Beware the propaganda............

Once when I lived here before, I worked for a newspaper and began to write a story on illegal immigrants. It was a huge problem 25 years ago, but law makers and government had their heads conveniently in the sand of the dust bowl all the way up to the top levels of government. I received a call and a death threat. I did back off the story, it wasn't worth my life or the lives of my children. Now, that I'm older, I'm sure that taking a risk to expose criminals who bring Mexican nationals across the border to work cheaply would be even less welcome than it was 25 years ago. Greed is greed and stays the same through the decades. In my research I found that nationals bought into this area often did not leave with any money, as they were charged for writing letters, for translating, for all the things they could not do, and the greed mongers got their wages, so what was the use to enter illegally?

Enough - I should have strong legs from climbing on soap boxes!

The Truth Shall be Known or Dark Doll #5

This is a doll from the Krakow death camp (from the website below.)

Despite my penchant for doing dark doll art, I truly hate evil. I was helping a little friend with a report on Nazis and found this: Doesn't say much for psychiatry, I don't think. I remember, in the dim past of my hippy/bohemian days of bragging about reading Nitsche. How awful and disgusting! Well, for whoever is reading, never, never, never, never forget the Holocaust. How can a whole nation be led into such horror? It should well be a lesson for all of us.

Dr. Paul Nitsche

A founding member of the German Racial Hygiene Society, the prominent psychiatrist Nitsche long combined the advocacy of treatment, including occupational and electroshock therapy, for “fitter” patients with support for “mercy death” for “incurables.” A member of the Nazi Party since May 1933, he served as deputy, then head, of the T-4 medical office, the division charged with selecting patients for transfer to T-4 facilities.[POSTWAR JUSTICE] In 1947, Nitsche was placed on trial in Dresden by East German authorities for his crimes in the T-4 "euthanasia" program. The psychiatrist received the death penalty and was executed in 1948.

Visit here:

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/

Dark Doll Number 4

I've done it again. There is something definitely alluring about digital photo art. I haven't called Verizon nor done any oil painting, but I did do another in the "dark doll" series.

The Eyes Say it All

I love this photo. So funny.

Remember the Verizon story? I found my cell phone today in a dresser drawer in a plastic bag containing my vacum cleaner information & warranty. Have I totally lost every brain cell that matters?

Now, I am going to quit proscratinating, because this might be a sign. I am going to go call Verizon because they still don't have my bill straight. I wish I had even $5.00 an hour for each hour they have wasted with their incompetent ignorance. Yes, its true! They keep telling me its fixed!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Sister, or Number 3 in Dark Doll Series

Happy birthday, dear Sister! May your path be lighted brightly, may your coming days be in peace, may all the tempest be stilled, and wonderful new days ahead. And may your cup always be running over with "bee sic clay."

Getting Ready

Came home tonight and started a cappuchino. But the coffee was moldy (old coffee from Quepos, Costa Rica) - so I threw it away. Will have to get a six months' Expresso supply from Starbucks when I get to Florida.

Started to pack. Need to make lists of what to take, what to bring home. Cooked my mahi-mahi to dry slivers, and the spinach much too soggy. Need to call Verizon to get my bill straightened out, but hey, if they can't straighten it out after a couple of months, will it ever happen? One more day won't hurt.

Get Ms. Meowie prepared for her stay at the boarding place. What clothes to take? I almost can't envision summer anymore. I believe I stuck those "hot" clothes somewhere.

Oh, for a green place. The last few days some company has been grading a huge space across the road - dust in the air - hard to breathe - ugly, ugly, every green thing attempting to grow is gone. More view of dirt. How exciting. Soon, more views of trailers. If this were permanent, I would just check out. Temporary I can stand. Boomtown!

Dear Beach, see you soon!