Psycho & the Cat Community

This is Psycho's baby picture. He looks innocent and all that doesn't he?

He was taken from his mamma way too early, but the owner said the kittens were destined for drowning (seems to be an old-time remedy for neglect of spaying or neutering). So I took the little lump at age 4 weeks as a present for grandson. So the two little ones slept with me, one, Psycho, nursing the, God forbid, loose skin on my underarm relentlessly as he was obviously not getting milk. The other little one was curled up close to me with his little arm over Psycho. (Today they are still the best buddies.) We bottle fed Psycho (he had a different name before it evolved more to fit his personality, but I don't remember what it was), but he still had this sucking thing that he still gets carried away with. He sits, leaning up against the wall, all curled over, nursing his own belly. Now that is demented. I even hate to confess it.

So, Psycho has grown up. I would judge him to be in late adolescence. He goes out at night and kills rats, even though he is declawed. If we don't let him out, he picks fights with the other cats until we can't take it anymore and let him out.

Ms. Meowie did another dump on my study floor, and though she is not an outdoor cat, in my frustration, I shoved her out the door, and Psycho ran out after her. She took off walking down the street. At that point, I confess, I had cracked, I did not care if she ever came back.

Later, I felt guilty and opened the front door and guess who was leading Ms. Meowie down the street toward home? Yep, Psycho.

Its interesting to watch how they take care of one another in this 3 cat community. Except at eating time that is. Then it is every man, uh cat, for his own self. Once in a while I supplement with - - - canned TUNA! The caterwauling and yowling from when the can is first popped to when it makes it to their plates rivals the best werewolf movie howls.

Ah, cats.

Today.

Whaaaaa! Whaaaaaaa to post?

Networking and internet are back! The guy did come back - they've been picking up big jobs lately - I suspect that their days of doing little house calls are coming to an end. Anyway, it appears to have been the router - it just died. Luckily we had another buried on the kitchen table and it is now hooked up and doing well. Yahoo.

Went to blood doc today who has also treated me throughout this mishap - I had to fight to get in - they wanted me to go to the primary doctor.

"NO thanks, the primary had a bit of a mixup with my readings for the last two weeks."

"Well, the doctor will not write a prescription for you because your primary has written one."

"I did not say I wanted a prescription, I just want the thickness of my blood tested because something is not right, I feel it." "My ankles and wrists look like 'the blob' and I have gained 8 pounds in 4 days." (I think Warfarin is made of a type of sodium.)

"No, I'm not premenstrual (you fool), I am 62 years old."

"I told you the doctor will not write a prescription for you because your Primary.......should be getting the tests and reading them for you."

"Ideally, yes, but Primary said NOT to get tested for a month, but something isn't right."

Now I'm hearing a huge irritated sigh.

"Sorry I bothered you, please send me to the appointment desk."

The appointment lady comes on and makes me an appointment. I hang up, again feeling like a very high on the scale "hypochondriac."

Within ten minutes the hematology nurse calls me and tells me to come in and get a finger pricked for the blood test and she found out I had a doc's appointment as well. ?????? Oooops, was that a crime?

I arrive at the appointed time, they prick my finger and tell me 3.9 - well, that is the consistency of potato soup when I am supposed to be running the consistency of, say, a beer. (Comparison purposes only).

Then she says, "Oh, you have a doctor's appointment." "I did not know."

I say nothing and dutifully trudge behind her into the doc's office.

He is very cordial. He tells me to forget meds for two nights, then resume. I ask him when I can get off of them.

"Maybe six weeks," he said. Maybe.

"So what are my chances of this (pulmonary embolism) happening again?"

"Twenty Percent."

He goes on to explain that if I have symptoms should "it" happen again, they will put me back on the medicine from hell forever or until I kick the bucket. Not medicating is risky, medicating is risky. On thinners, I had just better not get a bump on the head or my brain could bleed to death, which I wonder if it already has. He goes on and says if I have no symptoms with another event, I could die.

I burst into tears.

"Why are you crying?"

Is that a man statement or what? Yah, Yah, I'm supposed to reply, "I don't know."

"Well, I am kinda disappointed, I was hoping to live for a while longer - uh, a big long while longer."

He looks at me.

"Look at it this way," he says, "You have 80% chance of living."

He really was sweet with his big brown eyes gazing at me through his glasses. Here is a doctor who is not burnt out yet. I feel grateful.

As I leave his office, I see about 12 patients in recliners receiving their chemo treatments.

I've been crying all afternoon. I will come through this. I'm scared. I'm also appreciating each minute, each second.

Guess I've understood this thing was bad, but in a way been in a denial. What else could it have been when I got up out of a hospital bed and started a new job the next day? Duh, big denial.

On the way home I prayed and told God the earth was too pretty to leave without a lot more sightseeing of it. And I was reminded that heaven is even more beautiful. (And I'm convinced that heaven has the best Indian food feasts that never put weight on a person - don't ask where I got that in my head.) And I argue as I drive down the road, "My grandson needs me!" Then I realized that I was trying to be in control again as usual......perhaps it is my job to enjoy each day, each moment, and if I really truly believe what I preach....then God will only bring me "home" when everything is perfect for that to happen.

Ha, ha, "L," you thought you were going first, didn't you? What happened to our genes? Most of our ancestors made it at least to their mid nineties! Do you think, despite the dire pronouncements, we shall bamboozle them once again and live until we are 92? I can see myself doing a nude (wearing nothing but a hat and a rhinestone necklace and earrings)self-portrait at age 92. Yah!

Soap Boxes and Frustrations and Globalism

Just popping in on daughter's computer - I'm still without internet - the guy I paid to fix it has not come back despite his promise to do so if I should have more trouble. Such is the 21st century - money seems to have no meaning - society seems to demand that we spend, spend, spend, prices are frightfully high on everything, service is at an all time low.

But at least he did not disable my entire computer like some other repair people have done in the past, so should I think I'm lucky?

Some doctors slop over your treatment, so what if you die, there are plenty more people out there who will flow in and fill up your space.

Items are built to fall apart so a person has to buy another soon, if they aren't built shoddily from the beginning. We just got a recall on our dishwasher - its eight years old and we are told that the wiring is defective and some have burst into flames. But are they giving us enough to replace the defective dishwasher? Of course not, we are getting the 1999 price minus the use.

The dishwasher works, we just have to endure the stress of wondering if the house will be nothing but charcoal when we come home someday or find a few hundred bucks to get a new one. At least Florida insurance will pay for fires, but not flooding or wind damage. Some will pay for wind damage, but with huge, intolerable deductibles. The problem with the dishwasher is, I don't have enough money to make up the difference, however I don't want my house to burn down either.

Food coming from China has hazardous ingredients to human health. Toys coming from China have lead content that will damage our children's brains and bodies. Still we import most of our goods.

I went shopping for my grandson and put three shirts in my basket - until I noticed they were made in China. Then I put them back. Clothing is substandard as well as possibly dangerous. (While visiting with a clothing store owner the other day, I was informed that many knits are made with petroleum - just what I want absorbed into my body, right?)

The quality of U.S. made clothing was much better. But labor in China, India, Cambodia, etc. can be obtained for $.13 cents an hour, and with no labor laws can be produced in larger quantities with exploited people working long, long hours. On the other hand, some exploited people find they are happy to have even $.13 cents an hour. But some are angry when they find out what their hard work sells for in the U.S.

I don't want shrimp from Taiwan. Good gosh. How fresh can they be? However, when our newspaper informs us of the PCB content of the fish in our bays, do I want U.S. shrimp either? And what the H___ is this about PCB's found in the fish in our bays? I thought the use of PCB's were banned years ago. Huh?

Well, as long as I'm writing one of these kinds of posts - immigration - or rather the lack of it: Illegal immigration is kind of like child abusers thinking they are having an "affair" with a six year old. It is not immigration. It is breaking the law. Children are molested, not having affairs. Grrrr. Criminals freely dance across our borders from the south, loaded with Meth to peddle in the U.S.

Granted, some people are hard workers looking for a better life - in that case, I say make legal provision through immigration, and not make it so hard to immigrate. Then let them assimilate but please don't force me to learn another language, we already speak one here. I'm not against learning foreign languages, I wish I knew a dozen because I would not have the nerve to go live in a foreign country and not try to learn the language, what is that all about? And, while we are on THAT subject, why, during Word War II did the U.S. turn boats of desperate Jews back to Europe to death? Gee, was it because they weren't going to fatten employers pockets by working for substandard wages and being content to live in substandard conditions? Oh, I bet they would've for the privilege of staying alive.

The history of the U.S. is full of shame with its treatment of certain people groups. I still run across (mostly older) people in the South who think slavery and segregation were perfect ways of life. I met people in Wyoming who were actually angry at the poor people who were devastated by Katrina, either because they chose to live in New Orleans or because they didn't "walk" out. Hard to walk miles and miles of road when your health is shot, or you are in a wheel chair, or 80 years old, or carrying babies.

Anyway, part of my problem with the illegals from Mexico (or anywhere) is a sense of entitlement that Country (Mexico) has toward the U.S. as well as the employers who break the law to employ the illegals. I used to work for a newspaper in a small town with a lot of illegals. I started a feature story (I am soooo politically dumb) and found that the employers not only were paying really low, many paychecks were being devoured by fees for translation, bill paying assistance, etc., etc. It wasn't long before I received an anonymous phone call threatening my life and my family's lives if I continued to snoop. I stopped. Oh, Rawlins, Wyoming is really quite a town!

Ok, I could write pages. In that kind of mood today.

I thought painting yesterday would help fire up some endorphins - I painted the awfullest ugliest painting you ever saw. Supposed to be a cajun hibiscus - oooohhh, ugh!

Well, going to try to go call the computer guy again today. Then vacumm and paint over the ugly painting.

....on the Catwalk, too sexy for their clothes.....

This is an odds & ends type of post. Wireless woes continue. This dapper doggie is part of a line of pet clothing I invented for a pet shop website a few years back. The website's name was "Catwalk." Of course there was an adorable outfit for kittie as well. I'm, of course, at a standstill on the current project I'm working on because of not being able to access the net.

The dragonflies are back! They are big and fat and colorful. Perhaps they are the babies I spotted at the beginning of summer, all grown up. From what I've seen of them dive bombing into windows and asphalt, they could be mating now. That'll make ya crazy, ya know. That would explain their kamakazee attitudes, would it not?

Some of the types I think I've spotted: Rambur's Forktail (I think these are the one's I've labled "Army helicopters"), Atlantic Bluett (a little far north), Eastern Pondhawk, and Comet Green Darner.

Has anyone seen any fireflys this summer? I think they've been disappearing along with the bees.

Not much going on. My wireless is down again, so I'm again borrowing computer. I don't know what to do. It is crucial I have internet access.

I'm now pulling out of the mixup on the blood thinner meds and lab result snafu of a couple of weeks ago and just today the energy level has been great.

It is still soooo hot. The flowers I labored over to get planted are not faring well. "H" did not want mulch anywhere, and just TRY to grow flowers without mulch to keep the ground moist - it won't work. My intents were to get a couple of bails of pinestraw down here and put it out anyway, but with the heat index at 108 degrees centigrade, I've not been able to do it. I started to rake the pinestraw from the remaining pine trees (remember the "disappearing pine trees") but the gleanings are small after the lawn mower has run over them. Maybe next year. I still have dead trees, bushes and plants to get trimmed out and out of here. Ex-son-in-law was helping, but when he found out he was not going to control my household, he got mad and made himself scarce so repairs and yard work he promised have halted. (Was that bribery to begin with?) Gran'ma has got to get strong here. (He grew up himself like Romulus and Remus and has no conception of regular meals, bedtimes, and the fact that he is a guest here during visitation hours just does not sink in, nor the concept of visitation hours.)

Weekend is here. Boy is glad. His mom visited the teacher today. So far so good. He is higher in reading by a year than we were told originally. He seems hyper in the evenings, but he's a boy child and children need to be out in the evening running and playing. I wish we had a pool as it's too hot to run and play. (This Grandma would like to lay on an air mattress in the pool.) (I can imitate Janis Joplin - and I often sing, "Oh, Lord, won't ya buy me a house on the bay, my friends all have pools, they lay out all day, Oh, Lord, won't ya buy me a house on the bay.") Sigh.

The older boy is on his way to play a football game tonight. While still suffocatingly hot, it is cooler in the evenings.

Time to go scan my emails on my daughter's computer, post this up, and see if I can get my flash drive to take my files over there.

Hall of Fame

No, I didn't paint it. I wish I had. This is a portion of the murals that were on the walls of the hotel where we stayed in New Orleans. As I mentioned, there is a small jazz museum in the hotel. Each room is named after a blues/jazz musician.

For my Canadian Friends.....

This was an interesting bit of information:

The New Dirty Energy. By Drake Bennett, The Boston Globe, August 19, 2007. "For those who dream that high oil prices will help drive America toward a brave new world of clean energy, the MacKay River project in Alberta, Canada, offers a glimpse of the future. The complex is a showpiece of cutting-edge engineering, wresting energy from beneath a swath of boreal forest. Under an unobtrusive spread of buildings, holes drilled at oblique angles free unprocessed fuel from the earth with jets of steam. Thanks to government and private investment, the complex is providing more energy every year, and by 2020, Alberta as a whole is predicted to generate enough to replace a quarter of the United States' current daily oil usage. And as oil prices rise, projects like MacKay River become more and more cost-effective, and more popular. The only problem: The thick, tarry petroleum that the Alberta project pulls from beneath that forest is far dirtier than oil. Alternative energy wasn't supposed to look like this. For years, leading environmental thinkers have argued that high fossil fuel prices are good for the planet, driving investors and customers toward biofuels, solar power, and a host of new energy sources that will quickly become cost-effective... The oil in oil sands is not easily separated out, and the immense amounts of heat required are usually generated with natural gas, giving the oil-sands industry a greenhouse gas footprint much larger than the traditional oil business -- estimates range from 40 percent more to five times the emissions. The process also uses enormous amounts of water: a study (PDF, 42 pages) by the Pembina Institute, a Canadian environmental watchdog organization, found that, depending on the method of extraction, every barrel of oil produced requires 2.5 to 4 barrels of water, all of which is then rendered too polluted to return to the water supply."

Sounds kind of ultimately destructive, do you think? This drilling process was being highly touted in Wyoming - there was no mention of the down side - extravagant use and destruction of useable water and additional greenhouse gas further leading us down the road to more global warming.

Oh, No, here they come again..........

Starting to feel a little bit better. I was reflecting on my situation and realized I am at this point due to a bunch of medical blunders. Best not to think about it so I won't be angry. But anger won't help. So's it is best to just concentrate on wellness and go on.

I got up at 4:00 a.m. this morning to make sure the hurricane wasn't projected to be more north and easterly in the Gulf. Up on this side of the Gulf, people are saying, "I couldn't take another one." I don't want to see anyone "taking" it, my prayers are that it will just DIE - it is supposed to be a four. I saw what a "three" did to our area and to New Orleans and this thing, judging by the size, must be a monster. However, Texas, being a favored state says they are ready for it.

Took the boy to a couple of birthday parties today - one was at a new bowling alley which was a new concept in bowling alleys - it was great and he had a good time with his old friends. I visited at length with a Montessori mom who used to be a special ed teacher and has two boys of her own that have been diagnosed with ADD and it was a great visit. I obtained the name of an iridologist from her.

I've purchased some liquid bonding vitamins/mineral supplement for both the grandson and myself. I think mine are starting to take hold. He seems calmer - I think. With the meds he wouldn't eat and he is a skinny boy - with the vitamin/mineral mixture he's eating. We'll see how it goes. School starts Monday. The new school is actually fairly new and in great condition - the art program is stunning - his teacher has a room full of computers that he has acquired, not necessarily through public funding, but his own pocket. I like the man. The school meals are healthy. The school appears to be more secure than most - and grandson won't have to spend two hours of his day traveling to and from school. I volunteered - oh, I don't know how that will go. I love kids one on one - but herds of them -???? Well, I have mellowed so - I'm open, it could be fun and rewarding!

The second party was at the beach and I couldn't stay long because of the heat - but the party was for the son of a Filipino (yeh, Dinners!) nursing friend of my daughters. Oh my, can they cook! We had crawfish, noodles, some sort of dessert made with rice and sweet potatoes, hamburgers, hot dogs, and more and more food! I was treated with the warmth of old friends (even though I had only met three of the folks briefly at a previous time) - it was a large extended family. I reflected once again, how us mixed culture folks seem to sometimes lose out in ways when it comes to traditions, culture, and identity. Well, I guess I come from a family of ornery independent pioneers - ya gotta have those too. But it was a good day - finished with a semi-nap and not having to cook dinner - just bringing out the food sent home with us was a curative to not feeling so well when I got home.

Dat ol' Sickness Bug be after mah Bodee & Computer too

I'm done in. Can't go no mo' - couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I was feeling rotten since N.O. Wanting to sleep and sleep and sleep, was dragging the hind end around, and that reluctantly.

The doc's office called yesterday and left a cryptic message to call right away about my blood test. I called them back this morning to find out what was up. They told me they got my test back (I have to test every 10 days to 2 weeks) and to double the blood thinners.

It didn't make sense - they just told me to decrease them the day I returned from New Orleans. I thought maybe walking miles and sweating a lot in the 104-108 centigrade heat index caused me to lose chemicals or something. Yeh, I'm nuts.

Today they said I must not be taking my medicine, because my blood was dangerously thick now. It seems that when they called me last week and told me to decrease the blood thinner, the gal made a mistake and should have been telling me to increase it.

I am rechecking my T-shirts to make sure the lettering on them does not say, "I am a walking guinea pig for medical mistakes."

The pain in my chest that I was afraid was a blood clot hitting my heart, the doctor thinks is asthma. So, despite blood pressure of 150/90, (a rarity since the gas incident in the apartment from hell) he gave me an inhaler. I can breathe better, I admit, and I am not falling asleep at 5:00 in the evening tonight.

Dang near dying has me perhaps overly concerned with every little pain. I have for quite a few years been very fond of living. Can't say that for my whole life, but now, yeh, I love living. I have had friends dying off for several years. "How can that be?" I think. I want to stay alive, partially because I think my contribution to those around me can't be done without - how conceited is that! 4 Dinners - heed this paragraph! We've used up a couple of our lives (being cat persons).

To add insult to injury, I just saw the dentist yesterday - a new one - I LOVED him and his office - really cool techie equipment. I have a tooth with a split root which has infection and he wants to pull it and set the appointment in conjunction with a deep, deep cleaning project. Yah! I was all excited. Doc today said to wait until after November as having really thin blood and making holes in the body by pulling teeth and planning roots under the gums was just asking for trouble. Darn, I was looking forward to it.

Enough..........the computer/network guy is coming tomorrow afternoon - he tried to help me over the phone, but it looked like a necessary configuration is gone - nada - he said, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT use the Windows System Restore to fix problems. He's seen a lot of messes from it. So, hopefully I will not have to borrow a computer.

For now..............

August 29 Anniversary (of Katrina) Coming

Let's not forget the alligators. Alligators are part of a great ecosystem and they live in swamps. Why are swamps valuable? Well, the August issue of Time had an eye opening article about the situation in New Orleans.

You are probably thinking, jees, when will she get off that! Well, I do have a tendency to ride a horse too long, but it is not just New Orleans - our whole country is showing that it is probably unprepared for disaster. Either before the disaster or during or after the disaster. And, as we have seen - disasters happen! More and worse are predicted.

Sometimes disasters are our own fault for ignoring our partnership with nature and the earth. (Or, what is happening in the world politically - i.e., terrorists!) No, I'm not a wacko leftist environmentalist - uh, maybe I am, but we are at the point we can no longer ignore our misuse/abuse of the planet we live on. Or the self-serving greed of politicians who are in office only to serve themselves and to get richer than they already are.

The known or publicized death toll in New Orleans was 1,800. The search is still on for bodies.

Here are some of the highlights from the Time cover article:

The writer recommended demanding of the candidates the answer to a question: How do you plan to protect New Orleans and how about the whole country's emergency management program?

He went on to state that the Army Corps is poised to repeat its mistakes. The drowning of New Orleans as made made, created by lousy engineering, displaced priorities and pork barrel politics.

Fact: Marshes, cypress swamps and barrier reefs are disappearing at the rate of a football field per hour. The "Corp" - or shall we call it the "Corpse maker?" was responsible for some pretty shoddy engineering. Early New Orleans was not on the coast but the Corp forbade communities to let the natural process of the river's deposits of silt to be deposited where Mother Nature would deposit the silt, making a delta which would absorb much of a hurricane striking the coast. Global warning is causing the gulf to rise causing 30% of the coast to slip into the Gulf.

No swamp, no gators. No swamp, more severe hurricanes in populated areas. Land de-intensifies the 'cane. So, that's Florida you say. How about New York? Scientists are predicting fiercer 'canes and expanding strike areas as far as New York in the future.

So what? Well, this endangers, not only lives, but the U.S.'s largest offshore oil and gas industry (who can we invade to fix that?), a huge seafood industry and about two million people.

The levees? The project to fix a known problem? Thirty seven years behind schedule. The article suggests that if scientists are not allowed into the Army Corps plans, the coast will disappear in the not so distance future. If that happens what will the huge population shifts do to the rest of the Country. Pre Karina the population of New Orleans was 450,000, now it is 265,000. I'm assuming these figures are New Orleans proper.

Its not all the Corp's fault. According to the article, local officials helped "scuttle" a Corp plan to building pumps and levees along Lake Pontchartain which would have prevented flooding. The author states, however, the Corps refused to be accountable to even the president and further states that water is a National Security issue. Which leads to another issue: foreign ownership of United States ports.

Well, enough for now, the article can be read in full here.

New Orleans Food & odds & ends

What is New Orleans without the carriage ride? I love to ride the carriages - especially with a good tour guide! The place is so rich with history. Our trip was a bit last minute so funds were sort of limited, so we just admired the wonderful horses this time around. I think I would have felt guilty making them pull us in that awful heat anyway! They do pull the horses out in the afternoon to get them out of the heat and then bring them back in the evenings.

The squares had a few spatterings of art but that is not due to the hurricane. The City decided that street artists should be banned - that was years ago, but since we came south. Fortune tellers seem to be welcome, however. My favorite place, the Court of Two Sisters, a great cajun/creole restaurant with courtyard dining was rather dog eared and moldy and the barbecue shrimp, supposedly with a light cajun seasoned butter sauce tasted like shrimp with molasses syrup. Luckily, I had ordered steak which was big enough to share with two other people.

We decided to skip the legendary brunch at the Court of Two Sisters. Elsewhere, the beignets were fabulous!

This time, the place to eat was Bubba Gump's Shrimp House. One of us had the Bucket of Boat Trash, and it was really great! The crawfish ettoufey was delicious. Waitresses were directed by the guest flipping over a metal plate - "Run Forest Run" or "Stop Forest Stop."

And the pralines! Oh the pralines! A candy made with cream, sugar, sometimes rum, and big nice pecans! Oh, oh, oh. We bought some for souvenirs and ate them all in the hotel room. I'm sorry, really sorry.

Great News Source - if you go here, check on the water woes story (bottom of web page).

Not What We Expected

New Orleans - fun loving town - it is not the same. I kept wanting to stop people, interview them, and take photos. Homeless roam the streets - more than ever. Many old, familiar places we wanted to visit were closed. For miles coming into the city, it looked like a war had taken place. Indeed a war had taken place - a war for lives and for survival.

The desk clerk told us some of her story - her house went in the flood caused by the inadequate levy system that was in place, and rebuilt now to the same inadequacy. She lost everything. She is now living in the hotel where she works. She told us that one of the room service people drowned when the levy broke.

The city is now scheduling demolition for surviving damaged homes under a new ordinance and disregarding the necessity of following the old ordinance which had a procedure lengthy enough to prove that repairs were intended.

Note: I talked to a friend in this area as well who had an older home, undamaged by the hurricane, and was warned that his house was on "the list" for demolition. I don't know how many other communities are destroying people's homes. Then who will buy the land? I can only guess.

There are still unrecovered bodies in places. The newspaper told a story that the rest of the Country does not seem to know.....the water system is barely functioning.....the bridges covering large expanses of water have been rated as hazardous.

If you want to go to New Orleans to party, there is a small area that is able to accommodate those wishes. Otherwise be prepared for an experience - but one you probably aren't expecting!

Because of time constraints we were unable to drive the coast to view the other towns and cities that were hit by Katrina and Rita.

New Orleans in its resourcefulness has added a new attraction: a tour of the hurricane devastated areas of the City.

More later.....will visit ya'll this weekend. To those I need to call: I'm exhausted and will try to get to calling this weekend.

Travelogue #1

All of a sudden my network is working as well as the router. What is it with the computer? Haunted?

Anyway - here's pics:

One for Candy & Stagg - graffiti art!

Puppy - the megalodon is for you!

The little white building is the studio I visited.

These are some of the pins we made...they look better in "real time."

The landscape in this area is incredibly lush with lots of palm trees. No wonder my friend is a landscape painter. I don't think the heat would allow me to do much on site painting however!

Going to bed - heading out to New Orleans tomorrow. Will post up pics of Springs and N.O. when I return.

Coming Up............

Back to blogging for a day - my computer network system got all buggered up when Firefox did its "updated" download. I have refused AOL's updates because of this reason, I just foolishly trusted Firefox a bit more.

We visited a Florida spring over the weekend. It was wonderful and fascinating. I will post pics later with travelogue.