The Romantic Life of Gardenia

The paths of life! I don't regret taking this one, even though I sit here with my eyeballs feeling swollen, lungs burning, and my temperature up to searing. Had to bring the boy home early from baseball practice as he was also burning up with fever. This a.m. he is set up on the couch coughing, not even asking for cartoons ..... oops, an interruption there to put a cooling jell pack on his forehead......you know a kid is sick when they aren't running around or asking for cartoons.

In the meantime daughter had a late date last night and is sleeping - grrrrr - I want to put ice cubes in bed with her to wake her up to take care of both her son and her mamma.

I guess I will be waiting on the boy today, perhaps stewing a chicken with onion, celery, herbs and brown rice in hopes it will make us both better. Perhaps reading, perhaps dozing. It is rainy, windy, and gray today. Coming home from 'Bama last night the rain was like a white out in the northern states. It was such a relief to pull into the driveway.

Everything is turning green though. The fields in 'Bama as we drove to the indoor batting cages last night were totally green and beginning to flood which is not good. It's been a tradition with us for the last 20 years to drive over the line for the magnificent strawberries that become ripe in March. Now they are really at a premium with too much water, and a much smaller planting. Last year the amount being sold was rationed to customers.

I've noticed lately that when going to the supermarket that certain items I take for granted are not available anymore. Our crippled economy seems to have us going backwards. I enjoy being spoiled - if I want to make an exotic recipe, I'm used to having the ingredients available. Its been a long, long time since the shelves in stores have been so limited. The large mega chain store up the road that I keep swearing I will not shop at anymore (but its so close to the house!) has many bare shelves. Our gas prices are inching up toward $4 per gallon -

The economy in NW Florida in this particular area has always been crummy - I wish I had a dollar for every time I've been told wages are low here because the cost of living is lower. That is ridiculous - a person works just as hard here at the same job as one does elsewhere. Yet there are many, many homes in the area that are in the millions-of-dollars bracket. I wish I knew where that money was coming from, because there are no jobs. Condos that are built one after the other - 10-15 stories tall or more with units selling for millions. Again, I wonder where all the money is. In the meantime, average middle class homes are sitting all over the place with "For Sale" signs on them. This year and next are going to be some interesting years to watch.

Well, taking these eyeballs to rest for a while, checking on the boy, and it seems the cats are even sick as I have some barf to clean up. Romance? Yeh. Don't tell Fabio about my secret life at home.