An interview

It was a surprise this afternoon when a man from the newspaper knocked on our door.  He said he heard that we travel and he heard of our son who is home-schooled and is going to show a horse at the fair.  He asked to take a picture of him with the horse later this week, and to interview him for an article in the paper right now!  Knock me over with a feather.

I sat nearby for a few minutes then went into the trailer.  I peeped through the window and could see them laugh and smile and talk at the picnic table.  Our son talked more after I left them alone so I'm glad I decided to come in.  I imagine the newspaperman got enough talking done to write whatever blurb he's going to put with the photo.  We shook hands and he left.

Wednesday

My aunt is.

This sentence is missing a complement.  There's nothing to complete the subject. It needs a predicate adjective or predicate nominative..

My bones are grim.  I will write her.  She wears magnets in her shoes. I love her so much.

She got her dress!

Baby Lily got her dress and it fits!  I feel?  I feel happy!  Our son sends us pics from his Blackberry.  That thing does everything.  I worried that the dress would be too big, but it looks like it fits her just right.  I thought the hat might be too big too, but it's not.  They said when they can get her all cuted up they'll send me more photos.  I can't wait!  I hope she liked unwrapping her gifts.  I used purple tissue paper which is fun when you're one because it crumples easily and makes noise, and I used only one small piece of tape so each item was easy for little hands to open.  I think Lily's parents liked the gifts too.  I think they got Lily all happy about it, bless their hearts.

The bunnies are gone.  History.  My husband said he should have made bunny rabbit chili out of them.  Very funny.  Actually, the rancher whose home we returned the buns to says that rabbit is very good on a plate but he can't bear to kill them himself.  I'm glad I don't have to look forward to getting any more scratches on my arms.  Sometimes I could hold them just right and sometimes not, and they would kick.  I will miss them a little bit.  I liked seeing them outside.  But I didn't like all the clean-up and moving around.  You really need a bunny hutch I think.  We put them at night in the storage compartment of our trailer so the coyotes wouldn't get them.  But I could hear them moving around early in the morning (at 6:15am) and I felt guilty for not wanting to get up right away and clean their night time bed and put them in the bigger daytime cages.  It would take me 45 minutes to do it all what with fresh food and water, cleaning bowls, cleaning inside of two cages, hosing off the table to put the big cages on, not to mention actually picking up the bunnies and moving each.  This morning was very windy and would have been uncomfortable for them to be out in it so I told my husband we need to return the rabbits.  It's just isn't working very well and son is not warming up at all to picking them up.  He sees us get scratched and he's like, no way!  He hasn't said so, but I can tell.  Leah was very kind about taking them back.  She didn't mind at all.  She said maybe next year he could start with a baby and a kind that won't get so big.  He's going to ask also if he could do only one bunny instead of two.  We'll see.  I think a hutch would be needed.  Maybe we'll be in a house by then.

My body is still tireded out from the triathlon.  Gosh, I'm such a wimp.  There were nearly 700 entrants.

Saturday night

Well, we've been fussing over the bunnies.  Not fussing in a good way.  There's more clean-up than our son expected I think.  I see why so many 4-H projects are done by the parents!  Not at our house though.  I'm going to help him more the next few days, so I won't feel like I could have done more to get him set-up, but if it doesn't go well we're telling him no more animals.

Tomorrow is the triathlon.  There are 360 runners signed up.  That's about 100 more than last year.  It's been successful and the athletes like the route.  I'll be at the bottom of the hill encouraging and directing athletes and my husband will be at the top of the hill at the main gate.  Last year it was fun and I enjoyed it.  It's supposed to be in the 90s tomorrow though.  It might be a little hot.

Friday night

Thursday Leah phoned us and we got to meet and groom two of her horses!  I brushed Jake.  He's a brown horse with the prettiest tail.  It looks like his tail is partly bleached blonde, but it's naturally blonde and brown. Wish my hair looked like that. He moved around a lot though.  I am too shy and I have to practice being more assertive.  Horses will boss you around if they know you're scared of them.  I'm concentrating on not being a-scared.  Heh.  I used first a rubber curry comb which is a rubber oval thing with nubs and they call it a brush.  It loosens up the dirt.  There's a lot of dirt in the coat.  Then I used a brush (which looks like the kind I used to use to wash the tires on my red convertible back in the olden days when I had a red convertible) to  flick the dirt away.  My arm got real tired.

Our son brushed Nike.  She's a Paint.  Paint is a kind of horse with big splats of spots.  She's very pretty.  Black and white.  She had a baby this year so she is a little thin and needs to put on 100 pounds, Leah said.  I saw her stretch out with her two front legs sticking straight out in front of her and her rump in the air just like a dog.  It was so cute!  She also went pee.  You better not be close when a horse goes pee because it makes a huge spot!  As a city girl, I have never been so close to a horse that is relieving itself.  The man who owns the ranch walked right by her and I know he got pee molecules on his pants.  I stepped back a full 30 feet.  I didn't want any specks of horse pee on me, not even invisible ones.  Leah flicked a couple bunny poohs out of the way on the tailgate of the truck while we were talking.  It froze my brain momentarily.  There were chickens and roosters walking everywhere.  Leah saw me walking very slowly.  One step, two step, look around, three step.  She said, "Lil, it's okay.  They won't bother you."  And she was laughing.  I don't know, but I worried they might come peck me or something.  Hey, you never know.  Turns out, they weren't interested in me at all.

Our son will show Nike at the county fair in October.  He will also show two bunnies, a male and a female.  They are meat bunnies, but they won't be sold, plus they are used for breeding.  At the show the judge will feel the haunches and you want to set your bunny on the table in a teardrop shape.  I've never eaten rabbit and I don't think I ever could. I can't say enough about how generous Leah has been with her time and with the animals and supplies.  Incredible.  Ain't nobody in L.A. who would ever give us all this stuff.

She has given our son two bunnies, he got to choose them out of all her rabbits, and he has to prepare them for showing.  That means he needs to handle them a lot to get them used to human handling.  They've been outside at a ranch in a hutch so they're nice, but one is quite edgy about being picked up.  I got scratched a little today picking up the female.  Not bad, but you have to be careful.  You have to grab them by the skin on their back like a cat.  It doesn't hurt them.  Then you have to hurry to put your arm underneath them so their legs won't flail and kick and to make them feel secure.  That's what they do.  Their legs kick like crazy and it makes them mighty hard to hold onto if you're a newbie.  I'm so proud that I've just about mastered picking up and holding a rabbit.  I'd never be doing this if we didn't have a son. 

One time I was at a friend's house and she showed me her pet rabbit in her back yard.  It was huge.  She picked it up by the back of the neck and said, "See!"  She was seemingly proud of the bunny  hanging midair in front of us, but I didn't appreciate what the big deal was.  Now I do!  The bunny let its legs hang free, didn't thrash, and was relaxed and trusting.  He was used to being handled.  He had been given a lot of attention.

So.  We are in rabbit training.  Leah has lent us food, cages, water bottles, food holders, a bag of cedar shavings for bedding, and the rabbits.  Unbelievable.  She and the other rangers are such an encouragement to the youth.

Thursday we missed school because of the orthodontist appointment.  We did shopping in town and didn't get home till 3:00pm.  There's good news and bad news.  The good news is all he needs is braces.  He doesn't need head gear like our eldest did and he doesn't need an expander for the roof of his mouth or teeth pulled like I did.  Just braces.  Just braces - to the tune of $6200.00.  I'm grateful we can get his teeth fixed.  He gets them in two weeks and will have them for a little under two years.

Today was a normal day.  Uneventful.  I was tired because one bunny got the bottom of his cage wet and poor thing was jumping around at 2:15 am because his feet were wet and probably cold.  I went outside and changed his whole bedding.  I startled my husband when I came inside from outside and thought he was going to kill me, but he realized it was me and didn't cold cock me in the nick of time.  I told him three times as he was coming at me, It's just me, It's just me, It's just me!  Yipes.  Good thing he's not a Vietnam Vet!  Then he helped me get the bunny fixed up. He didn't get mad at me either.  At least I know I'm well protected.

The stars outside were incredible.  Son slept right through everything of course.  Homeschooling went swimmingly and at lunch and after school we both looked forward to holding the bunnies.  Son has named them.  Bucephalus for the male (after the story about Alexander The Great's horse that he heard in the movie The Black Stallion) and Talulah for the female, after a bulldog he fell in love with who was with a camper here last week.

Bummer day

Leah was busy transporting horses so we didn't get our class today.  Truth is, son has a bit of a head cold and wasn't in tip-top shape for it energy wise anyways.

I pulled my baby blanket apart completely and am starting anew.  I wanted to take out only one row, but I couldn't get my needle through the row right, so I pulled out another.  I knitted one row and there, big as life, a giant boo-boo is in the middle of the row.  So I pulled it out and well, sigh, I ended up pulling out the whole thing.

Very.  Bad.  Not.  Happy.

Tomorrow is a new day though.  Son has an orthodontist appointment.  They'll tell us how they can fix his teef and how many grand it'll cost us.  Of course, we're looking forward to that.

It's the first day of fall

It's fall, or autumn as my husband says, and it's ten degrees cooler than yesterday.  I read Wyoming and Montana have skipped fall entirely and gone straight to winter.  Bummer!

My baby blanket looks very ugly somewhat unattractive so far, but I'm not discouraged because my stitches are getting better.

I woke only an hour and a half after I went to bed.  It's was 1:30am.  It's the kind of wake up where my eyes pop open but it's dark so I cannot see.  I also took one short breath inwards like a very small half gasp.  My heart wasn't skipping at all though.  Well, immediately I was trying to pray but my mind was a jumble because I was asleep.  I didn't know who to pray for so I prayed for who I thought of and then I fell asleep again and slept heavily till late morning.

I'm knitting tonight

I'm starting a lavender sachet (that's a color) baby blanket for Christmas.  Last night I started three times and pulled it out three times.  Tonight I'm going to keep going no matter what. I think that's what Reta would tell me to do.  It's an unofficial practice run. I can tell my stitches are improving, and in fact I was doing a yarn over backwards till a few minutes ago.  Now that I'm doing it correctly I can see it's getting an edge like it shows in the example photo. 

Leah spoke with me a few minutes this afternoon and we're all set to have our son's first meeting to wash and brush horses.  It will be 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening and there will be 4-H kids there too.  Leah said she thinks I'm more excited than our son is.  I let my guard down for a mere moment and my real feelings of anticipation showed brightly.  A leetle bit too brightly! Yikes.  I have to be careful or everyone here may realize the secret truth that on the inside I am a complete doofus.  Currently, it is confidential information available only to those who read this blog.

So I'm going to sit on the sofa and knit and pretend it's winter.  I wish it were cool enough to turn on the space heater but it's not.  My feet are cold, but my husband will throw a king size fit if I turn on the space heater and point it at me.  It's about 74 degrees in here. Oh he's so fussy.  And I'm going to think.  And pray.  I have prayers calling me and I need to say them. Or is it, I am called to prayer?  Yeah, I think that's the way you're supposed to say it.

One baby dress and hat

Ta-da. Or as I prefer to say, "Taa daa!" I finished it. There are also matching panties to go over the didee. They're nothing fancy. The bodice was a little tricky, but not what I'd call difficult. The hat was tricky too, but fun. I hope to make another set sometime. The hat is nice because you can flip the front brim up or leave it down to keep out the sun.  What does a kitty say?  Meow, meow!

I added grosgrain trim. The pattern calls for the bodice facing to be hand sewn all the way around and that's not happening on my watch so I put the trim on to cover the machine sewing instead. Turned out well!  I still had to hand sew the shoulders when I turned the bodice facing, and the hat to close the seam where you turn it right side out.  Am not crazy about the hand sewing. The post office here was closed today so we can't mail it out till Monday.  Shucks.

I tried and tried to upload these pictures last night but they just wouldn't go.

Next!  I have yarn, purple!, to make a baby blanket for her for Christmas.  It's a super simple pattern - garter stitch which is plain (the beginner's stitch) but it has a nice border to give it interest.  This is my next leaf that I'm turning. I will tell you when I start because although the instructions are easy, I'm not sure I understand them.  Hence, I need help.  But Reta who taught me to knit is not here so I'm asking around at churchity-church for someone who knits who would consider helping me a bit.  I'm taking my instructions in my purse tomorrow.  I asked last week and got a lady's name but she wasn't there.  I'm being a good grama.  Trying to be.  I want to be yia-yia, pronounced "ya-ya" which is Greek for granny.  I learned about yia-yia from Mrs. A.  She's has a funny yia-yia video called "This is no ordinary yia yia"  Cracks me up.

And I have one more leaf which I'm going to write about now which is a little too soon to be written about but I'm excited.  I found out that I like to brush, that is, groom, horses.  Okay, I brushed one horse one day and decided I want to learn how to groom horses.  There are lots of horse people around here.  One is a ranger who has sixteen horses and she says I can come out and learn to groom and groom till I fall over.  Is that a dream come true or what?  I'm breathless I'm so looking forward to it.  I'm not sure which day yet, but she is going to schedule a day where kids, 4-H kids, will learn about washing horses' legs.  Some of her horses are quite tall I gather, so the smaller kids can only do so much.  I get to learn with them.  And our son too, of course.  Actually, it is all more for him and I am an appendage, but I'm so excited.  I prayed for this and I prayed the Lord will give me a way to make it happen and it's happening.  Like the chorus of that song we sing at church - All things are possible!

I should warn.  I'm feeling real scrunched in this web page.  I might be going back to all white with no comments soon.

Osprey

It was a lucky shot today.  Was disappointed I completely missed the shot of him flying away.  All I got was sky.  He was magnificent. The light was good.  I have a few other images of him, but this is the one closest to him.

It's raining and thundering now!

And I have to go to bed.

Bible look-up thingie

I carry my Bible in my purse, but it's getting heavy on my shoulder: Bible, camera, big ol' honkin' wallet. It's too much.

Sometimes I know part of a verse, or all of one, but I don't know where it is in the 66 books of the Bible. My index doesn't always help me. The best option is Google, but amazingly, I'm not always at my computer. What to do? I searched for an electronic Bible and found this Franklin one! It has the NIV and KJV plus a Holman Dictionary. Actually I wish it had the New KJV on it but it doesn't. I'll be able to find correct pronunciations easily! How excellent is that. I can look up the difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and expiation and propitiation. It has devotionals (which I have aplenty right now) and memorize-a-verse and other doodads on it. I hope it's as good as it sounds. Best of all, it supposedly will fit in my back pocket. That would be perfect. I used my birthday money to buy it. I've been holding on to that money for two months.

Homeschool went poorly today. It was our first day of 7th grade and K12 failed to activate my account. All the fun parts online were unavailable. Sheesh.

Five (5)

I received five compliments on my hair in church this morning. Five! One from a man and four from women. That's the most ever, anywhere, anytime. The man said it reminds him of Crystal Gayle's hair. Crystal's is jet black and down to the floor while mine is silver with two other colors and to the top of my thighs, but anyhoo. We don't look a gift-horse in the mouth.

For a change I got up early, showered and washed my hair before church and blow dried it and wore it down. I wore my new blue India top and an ankle length denim skirt. I wore my same old flip flops, but my toes are purple with glitter. No earrings for although I love long earrings I don't wear any jewelry or make-up on Sunday mornings.

I say for a change because usually I go to church looking like a homeless person. Well, not that bad, but maybe a little unkempt. Well, not unkempt, but not neat. I sniff my shirts and pick the cleanest one on Sunday morn and figure if my husband washed my jeans last week, I'm good. And I look sleepy because I always roll out of bed at the last possible moment and that's not my best look. I lost my sunglasses at the car show and now I have to enter church without cover for my naturally bloodshot morning time eyes. I'm deeply disturbed about that. When I was 20 I looked fine first thing in the morning. But now that I'm 50? Ah well. That's life in the old lane.

It was great to be back at our home church. Awesome.

For evening I wore my hair in a smooth French roll. Got no compliments. I like it up. Seems everyone else likes it down. Hhhmph.

Love notes

Yesterday husband and son went to watch football and I had the place to myself which was nice.  It was beautiful outside but a little chilly inside.  My husband runs hot.  He's got the air conditioner on so much in the summertime that I have to go outside to warm up.

After they left I was sitting at my computer getting cold toes. And then a light bulb went off in my head!  I'm by myself.  I can turn the A/C off!  So I did and I was comfy all evening.  You know, like a normal person would be.

And I decided to send my husband an email.  I titled it "Rawr!" and I wrote:

I rule the ROOST and I just turned off the A/C.  How d' ya like THAT! Because he's always accusing me of turning off the A/C when actually the thermostat has turned it off, not me.

And I included a cute ducky animated gif in it.

The next morning he emailed me back.  He said:

And I am madly in love with you!!  

I have no idea how he puts two and two together like that, but I thought it was nice.  He made me smile.  He's a hopeless romantic.

The day was nice.  I turned over one of my leaves.  I'm sewing a baby dress for my granddaughter!  Indeed, I'm not easily discouraged.  My purple skirt didn't turn out, but that's okay.  I'll try this baby summer dress.  It's the littlest thing.  The bodice is doll sized.  This time I'm waiting till it turns out before I post pictures.  Tonight I cut out all the pieces.  But wait.  I ordered her little shoezies to go with it.  

 

Are they darling or what.  They just make me sigh out loud.  They're handmade in New Zealand and they're especially good for baby feet because they don't enclose the toes too tightly like regular shoes.  I think they're like wearing moccasins if you're a grown-up. 

I got her a Ruby Rabbit bath towel too. I couldn't find a photo of only the rabbit one. Technically, I like the frog towel best, but being how she's a girl I went for the safe bet. Purple.

Did I say it's my grandbaby's birthday. Yes. Also, I'm late on the present. I'm a flaky grama I guess, but I wanted to package it up myself so I had to wait till we got out of Wyoming. When I have it all ready I'm wrapping them separately and putting it all in one box. Our son said he won't tell Lily I'm sending something so she'll surprised. She's one year old. Haha. She doesn't even know it's her birthday. Not yet anyways.

The topmost photo is yesterday's rainbow. I liked how the sun was falling on the butte. You'll see the dumpsters by the road and the outhouses near the shore. I'll say I 'captured' them like the photographers say on PhotoSig. Haha!

A day

My little sister had some vertigo. She threw up too. A virus, says the doctor. I think so too. But our dad has tinnitis and our mom has Meniere's so my sis is slightly freaked out. I think she'll be okay. I hope so.

We both have Skype and when she gets online a little bubble pops up in my status bar and tells me she's online. She works so she's supposed to be at work all day. I noticed she was online today. When we were making up the bed this morning I told my husband about it and I complained that she took a day off work and didn't even let me know. He agreed with me, I thought, till he said, "Yeah, who is your sister to take a day off and not keep you informed?" I declare. People. Well, I have to cut her some slack because she couldn't even get out of bed. Her husband had to make a doctor appointment for her. My sister never, never stays in bed. She's my polar opposite.

Speaking of which, our trailie is kind of clean. The men dusted everywhere. They dusted the fan blades, the walls, the ceiling, the cupboards. They dusted so much I got a headache from watching work being done. I went to bed and stayed there a couple hours till the ruckus quieted down.

I've turned one of my leaves over. I went for a walk-jog on my old route yesterday! That gave me a headache too. My thighs are a little sore today and that's a good thing. Two months of brownies have got me a little hefty, but only on my tummy really. I can work it off fairly easily. Gotta git sleek.

Had a big rainbow today. We just finished dinner and we saw it. I jumped in the truck and drove down the road to find a place to shoot it. It didn't fully arc. It just went upwards and disappeared, but it was very wide. Often rainbows aren't nearly as pretty in photos as they are to your real eyes.

The Hubble Space Telescope images of the butterfly and the soap bubble - they are magnificent. Tonight I will picture in my mind: wide rainbows, little white lambs curled for sleep on a wooden step, and galaxy sized Hubble butterflies suspended in the heavens by God. I will fall asleep. Infinity. And I will dream.

I will wake and start a new day!

A song

A song speaks for me today! Shazzam!

Hmmmm

And hmmmmm.

Things have stopped biting me. My braid was really nice today. I got two compliments on my skirt (one from husband and one from son) and our son said I can wear it to church. I've been wanting a new trailer but tonight I'm thinking house. I hardly want to fill a house with stuff and things and dust collecting objectified objects. It doesn't appeal to me at all. But persons may need a house at this time.

I have big plans. I feel like it's time to turn over a new leaf. A bunch of new leaves.

I peeked at other photographs that have been submitted and I'm sure I haven't got a chance. Oh! Tonight I saw a bee-yoo-tee-ful one. It's three dolphins surfing in a big wave on the beach in San Diego and it's almost like you see them through glass. They're inside the waves. I think it should win. It would be my pick!

G'nite.

Car show

There was a car show here today. Nice music. Lotta people. I got a sun headache though. I've gone from sunworshiper in my youth to lady with a sunshine headache in my twilight years.  It was about 90 degrees.  The orange car was like a ZZ Top car!  The Ford, I like the reflection of the tower and then a duplicate teeny reflection of the tower in the center of the wheel.

I like shine. Shiny, shiny, shiny.


People enjoying the day.


And this, ta-da, would be a self-portrait. Hi! I'm wearing long sleeves so I don't get a tan!

Tomorrow is a driving day, all day.

A day

Something in Wyoming is biting me and making me itch.  I'm tired of it.  I never see anything bite me.  I never see anything on me, but I see little gnats sometimes.

It's annoying that I have to select the Helvetica font every time I want to type.

This pic is of climbers climbing the tower. Seems there are always a few up there. Looks scary. The guy at the bottom was climbing up, ever so slowly, but the girl at the top never moved. Even her arms never moved. She must have been in a waiting mode. No one is allowed to climb in June though. The month of June is set aside so the area can be honored by the Native Americans. They put little prayer flags out. The rangers instruct visitors not to touch them or remove them out of respect for the Indians.

These little gnats, they fly right into my eyes. Creeps me out. And I thought one flew in my ear. Yuk. And when I woke this morning I thought I heard a crinkling sound in my ear like a bug in there. Ewww. I'm grossing myself out. I don't really think there's anything in there but I was torturing myself with the thought this morning. I remember the story of the little boy who had a spider in his ear and he had to go to the doctor to get it taken out and he heard noises in his ear. Blech. Then I thought about Linda, a friend at work, and she went to Cuba, get this, for a vacation. She showed me pictures of her hotel and the glass in the front of the building was all busted out big time. Nice establishment, I'm sure. It was a plain, white building.

Well, when she came back to work she said she was worried some kind of bug got in her and might be living in there. She said she lay in bed and tried to sleep with her mouth open so just in case there was something it would walk out. I said, Linda, are you sure? There was nothing wrong with her. I think she was smokin' too much dope.

Summer is slipping away

We have five more days here.

I won't get to practice trying to photograph a star field until the moon is gone. I forgot about that. The moon is so bright that in a long exposure it would outshine everything. 

Whaaat?

Barack Hussein Obama plans to speak to all public school students across America on September 8th. And here's the document to help teachers prepare their students for him.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10582301/President-Obama%E2%80%99s-Address-to-Students-Across-America-September-8-2009

I can't believe it!

There's a headline about it at Drudge and American Thinker. It can't be true. Can it?

A new thing

I was noodling around the Web today. You know, I have been thinking and thinking how to photograph Devils Tower in a new way. I already put it in my calendar one year and I don't want to do the same photo again. But the road around her only goes so far. In fact, she pretty much is what she is. Amazing, but how to do it differently?

Well. I have always liked those night time photography photos and I always assumed they had special equipment. I have seen night time photos where the stars look like hundreds of pin pricks of light in the sky. I found out tonight that you don't need special equipment. I can do a long exposure and catch the stars! Ooooh, exciting thought. Of course, I can't do like Andromeda or something like that, but hey, pinprick stars all around the tower might be nice.

I will experiment.

Thanks!

I know some of my people voted for me. Thank you. I thank you so much! Tonight I have 25 votes and I am content. I'm grinning like a Cheshire Cat! I'm easy to please, I guess. Life is nice.

Honestly, I thank you. It made my day and I've had a lot of fun with it.