Ramblings From Me and a Picture or Two

I have had a pretty good Monday. Slept most of it away though. Helena fetched my hide to town to watch the girls while she and Bob went bowling like they do every Monday from September to May. She got here about quarter to seven. They lost three games this evening. That's very unlike them. They usually kick butt at bowling. Was good to see the girls again. Allison didn't home till right at 8:30 p.m. She ate supper at one of her friends' houses. I ate supper with Helena. Everyone else, Kellen, Sara and Bob were done with supper by the time Helena and I got there. Helena had made Shepard's Pie. It was tasty! I was back home by 10:15 p.m.
Fred was a good boy and stayed outside the whole time I was in town. He let me know he wasn't real happy about that situation but he'll get over it. Matter of fact, he's already gotten over it! He's now asleep on the floor beside my chair here in the deskroom. I had to close the door to make him stay in here with me cause he was in the kitchen barking at the cats trying to convince them the canned cat food I had put out for them was really for him. He'd of stolen it right off their perch if I hadn't made him stay in here with me. He'll get the leftovers - if there are any - when those three cats get done.
I started reading a new book the other day. Not really a new book, I read it years ago. Ma found the entire Earth's Children Series by Jean M. Auel and I have started reading Clan of The Cave Bear again. First time I read it was back in 1983. I told you it wasn't a new book! lol Gary and I lived out in Goldfield, Nevada at the time. RJ was only a few months old at that point. Gary worked for Esmeralda County and when they decided to move the library to new quarters out there, he and I helped in that endeavor. That's how I came across the book to begin with. By helping to shelve the thousands of books we helped to move. It was a good book the first time I read it and the subsequent books in the series proved to be good reads as well. I'm kind of disappointed though that I know how it will end. I'll slog through it again though because it is an excellent story and I don't remember the whole of it.
Ma found all four books at the thrift store last week. All four of them First Editions as well! I used to collect First Editions but the house fire wiped out that collection. Or as RJ and RW called it: The Kids' Inheritance. Guess without even realizing it, I've began that collection all over again. That's cool though!
While Susan and I were in Hutchinson we hit the Etcetera Shop and I brought home about a dozen books from there. A few of those are destined to be Christmas gifts though. Do you find it find strange I give people 'used' things as gifts? Some folks think it is tacky, not right at all. But in my family if we find something that we think someone will enjoy, whether it's new or not, we buy it for them as a gift. Most of my elephant herd was acquired in that manner...from family members who found the critters and bought them for me. I look at it this way: A gift is something from the heart. It shouldn't matter how much money was spent on it or if it once belonged to someone else. What should matter is that the person who bought it for you was thinking of you at the time. I'd rather have something I liked that cost a quarter than something that cost $25 that didn't fit into my likes at all. There are folks I won't buy anything but something new for but those folks are few and far between in my circle.
And speaking of those gifts...do you realize how fast Christmas is creeping up on us? Linda and Susan have invited me to a gift wrapping party at Susan's house this coming weekend. Bring your own gifts and paper to wrap with. I can do that! That closet in my bedroom holds a bunch of gifts for others that I have picked up throughout the year. I still have some gifts to make though. It should be a fun time wrapping presents with my sisters this weekend.
I folded more magazine pages the last two nights in preparation of making at least two more paper bowls for gifts for my sisters. I've absolutely no idea what I am going to get my mother for Christmas. I'm thinking I will bake her some cookies and make her a few magnets for her fridge with frogs on them. My mother has everything she ever wanted and if she doesn't have it, she can and will go out and buy it for herself.

RJ was here this morning. He neglected to wake me up. I heard Fred barking to be let back in the house and got up to do so. RJ was here in the deskroom on the computer. I said hello to him and went back to bed. Before he left he said something about coming back tomorrow to build the shelve out in the trailerhouse shed for all that junk out there. I told him I'd rather he fixed the water pipes in the bathroom so I can get my deskroom back together so I can get caught up with the artwork I'm way behind on. He said, "Don't yell at me, Mom." I wasn't yelling. I was being firm about it. I think the deskroom is a bit more important then the shelving out in the shed. Both need to be done, but we need to get our priorities in line here! I really NEED my deskroom together. The shelving can wait a few more days. Either that or he can put Devin to work on the shelving while he fixes the pipes and then I can put this deskroom back together. I'm going to have to do that myself anyway. No one but me knows where I want all this crap. Hell, I don't even know where it all should go yet.

Sometime in the near future I should be getting a call from the weatherization folks about weatherizing this house. I'd like the deskroom back together by then! I'm not sure if I qualify for that service or not, but it was worth a shot to find out. I sent the application in a few weeks ago. Playing the waiting game on that right now.

This picture below is one I took about six years ago of a thunderstorm building at dusk. It rained to beat the band that night! What a pretty shot though, huh? The treetops you see in the picture are between the house I live in and the burned house I used to live in. Someday I will live in that house again! I am going to miss my woodburning stove again this winter. I could go over there to the burned house and fire that sucker up if I wanted to right now. Not that it would do any good...lol...there are few windows and make-shift doors in the burned house now. And not a lick of insulation in it either. I truly miss the smell of a wood fire burning on a cold winter's night. And if you're wondering if the wood burning stove had anything at all to do with the house burning, it didn't. The house burned on the 31st of May. A Tuesday morning in the pouring rain. Fire marshall says the fire started in the sofa but I totally disagree with that assumption. I don't care what the burn pattern had to say about that fire. When I stepped out of my bedroom that morning, the sofa was not on fire. The whole south wall of the livingroom was on fire. The sofa sat on the west wall. I think the house was struck by lightning but what I thought and what I saw that morning held little interest to the fire marshall. He said it started in the sofa and he wasn't changing his mind about it. I don't suppose after three and half years it really matters one way or another...the house is burned and the insurance covered it. That's how I ended up in this stupid trailer house I didn't want in the first place.
House shopping isn't for me. I don't like shopping of any kind actually. I am, however, thankful for a roof over my head, warmth in the winter and a place to lay my head at night to sleep. I chose this stupid trailer house because I didn't want to shop for houses anylonger and I didn't want to move away from where I live. A trailer house was my only option really.
One thing I wish this house had that it doesn't is a dog door. I've been begging for three years now for someone to put one in for me but no one thinks that is a good idea except for me. If we had one, I wouldn't have to play butler for that silly Fred dog! And he wouldn't have to stay outside while I'm away from home.
It appears as though I've written another novel this evening. I'll leave you with a picture of a sculpture I found surfing the net. I wish I could tell you just who the artist is but I did not save that information for some reason. Guess I wasn't thinking that day! Can you guess what it is made from?

Remember to give and get some hugs. Smile at a stranger and lend a helping hand where one is needed most. Have yourselves a terrific Tuesday! I shall come yak at you all again soon. Perhaps artwork and maybe a poem will be included next time!

Peace

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