Hot Diggity Dog

  So much rain lately. Of course, the weather was excellent while I was forced to lay in my bed with only the view of the mountain top out my window. Since I have been able to navigate it has rained every single day. I went out while it was just a drizzle and picked my sweet peas and pulled a handful of weeds out of my raised beds.  You all may be wondering about the state of the gout patient. He does NOT have gout. He recovered way too fast and was driving after just one day. Now that I have had a gout attack, I can assure you that he would not have been so nimble after just one day! He has arthritis. I wouldn't go so far as to say he is a hypochondriac, but he does love attention. I complained about bread yesterday; the subject today is apples. When you buy bread, you know what you are getting. Not true when you buy fresh produce. You can inspect fruits and vegetables to make sure there are no bad spots, but there is nothing that will guarantee flavor. I miss having my own s...

  Let's talk about bread. Yesterday, while cleaning out the fridge in search of dinner ingredients and putting away a handful of purchases, I boiled the eggs that would not fit in my egg tray. It holds 30 eggs, but I only wanted to put two trays in, and I had 23 eggs. I know, you thought I was going to wax eloquent about bread and I will get there. I boiled the three eggs and made a container of egg salad with thoughts of just sandwiches and maybe some fruit for supper. I was hot and my back was telling me to lay down. Life was going to be simple. While at the store, I did wonder if we needed bread. Since being down with my back, I have not been in the kitchen much. I am not a big toast eater in the morning. I crave a little sweet upon wakening and I like bagels. I have to eat to be able to take the steroid otherwise my stomach will pitch them back up. I did not buy bread. My bad. But here's the deal, I hate tossing moldy bread out. I have tried the half loaf and that is okay, ...

  Mr. BoJangles here. Things around here have been pretty strange. Like suddenly Mom and Dad have exchanged roles! That would be like me and Dora changing places. I would never want to be in water all day long and I doubt she could appreciate my activities.  Mom could not get up and walk around very much and Dad had to get things for her. Like food and drink. He also took over some of her chores. Like feeding us dogs and cleaning up any messes we made. Let's just say that he is not one to jump up quickly to attend to things. He likes to wait and make any effort on his part worth it. He finally took Mom to a doctor, and she got better. This was a huge relief for Toni and me. Dora, too, as far as that goes. Dora missed her chats with Mom while she took food from Mom's fingers. Mom was a lot better and taking her tasks back from Dad. They both got up early yesterday. Mom always gets up early, but not Dad. When I saw Mom get in the shower, then get dressed, I wondered if maybe we ...

  I finally decided that my spasms in my back were not getting any better and had my driver take me to the clinic. Riding there was agony. I finally put my foot from my good side on the dashboard and braced myself for the bumps. The clinic that is close by had no openings and sent me to their sister facility in the next town. Of course, the road construction along the way was rife with bumps and holes. We moved here in early 2022 and they have just finished road construction that was in progress when we arrived. That road was the first leg of the trip. The second leg of the trip is in Georgia, and they seem to be moving a bit faster. Time will tell. The seat in the truck was in a reclining position and I took a pillow along. I could stand with minimal pain, and I could lay flat and manage to forget my predicament until I stood up. Sitting was impossible. So, they checked me in, and I stood waiting. Afraid to sit and then sob like a baby. After determining that it was pure muscle pa...

  While I have been down ...literally flat on my back, my mate has been tending to my every need. Can you hear me laughing? He tries; he really does. I think it might be his inattention to detail that tends to annoy me. He has been getting takeout and even cooked one night. Trying to explain how to cook corn on the cob in the microwave was hilarious. Me: "Just put them in the microwave and cook for 6 minutes." Him: "But what do I do first?" Me: "Nothing, just put them in the microwave and set it for 6 minutes." Him: "Do I cut the end off?" Me: "Why? Just put them in the microwave and turn it on." Him: "I still don't understand, what do I do first?" Me: "Take them out of the refrigerator." Him: Total look of confusion. Me: "Okay. Listen closely and do not interrupt. Take the two ears of corn out of the fridge, then put them in the microwave, shucks and all, close the door and set it for 6 minutes. When that t...

  I am at loose ends today. Nothing urgently trying escape from my mind. My sciatic nerve is trying to keep me down and almost succeeding. It had been making my life miserable for the past week. I try to recall something I may have done to aggravate it and the only thing I can come up with is bending down to pick up some laundry I dropped. Can't even blame it on my husband! So here I am propped with pillows to facilitate sitting with good posture. Good thing I have lots of pillows on the loveseats. Speaking of pillows, why do men hate pillows so much? I have yet to meet a man who can appreciate a multitude of pillows on beds and other furniture. They all whine, "Why are there so many pillows?" Until they have the need for a pillow at their back or to prop an aching limb on. I didn't make dinner last night as I was laying as flat as I could to make the searing pain bearable. I think maybe I may have pulled a muscle, too. And I did dig a trench last week. Nothing out of...

  Once again, I posted twice in one day and got my sequence out of whack. Bear with me as I continue to purge my mind of this woman! My son called one day to invite me to make a quick trip to his home to attend his wedding! A sweet civil ceremony in his house, with his dad and his mom being his only family in attendance. No, he did not invite his girls. We were all pretty sure the evil one would have shown up with them and ruined the day.  The wedding proves to still be something else she can bring up to her children and remind them that they had not been included. Besides the fact that their mom would have brought tension to the day, his girls are not well behaved. They do not show respect to their elders, looking at everyone older than them as providers of whatever they might want at the moment. This is not how my daughter-in-law raised her own children and not how I raised mine. I won't say that my daughter-in-law dislikes the girls, she hardly knows them, but she is not on...

My son was finally going to be happy! He was anxious for us to meet our new daughter-in-law to be. I was excited and made the mistake of blogging about the upcoming trip to meet her. Unfortunately, my son had not told his girls yet. She read it and immediately used that bit of news to try to alienate the girls from their dad. I tried always to be careful about using names on my blog. I used my kid's names and their children pretty freely until the evil one objected and said she had contacted an attorney to petition the court to make me remove her and the girls from any blogs that made reference to them and any pictures that were included. I knew she was bluffing. I knew she would not spend money on an attorney unless someone else paid for it. The message came to me through my son, since I was still ignoring her. She had finally stopped texting and emailing and I was okay with that. She was still reading my blog, mining for information she could use against my son. Then she commente...

  I met my new daughter-in-law and loved her immediately. She loves my son. Their relationship is downright normal! She is from Peru and although I am sure she understands more than she lets on, she does not speak English. She has three grown children, who are all here in the United States. Legally!! Her oldest daughter was the first to come and she has a delightful 10 year old daughter. A very well-behaved child. Her son and youngest daughter just recently came to the states. They live in the 2 bedroom basement apartment of my son's house and they pay rent. My son would forego that rent, but my daughter-in-law and I share the same ideas about raising children to be responsible adults. After our initial meeting we left knowing that my son was finally in a normal relationship. On our next visit to Minnesota, it was graduation time. We were invited to my sweet grandson's graduation, but not to Child One's big day. My son was not allowed to attend his daughter's graduation...

  In the meantime, my daughter sold the house she had just moved into. The one that I landscaped for her. She worked from home, so location wasn't an issue. Her family moved into an apartment pretty far south and did not reveal her address. Even to me at first. She didn't want her brother to slip and let her address become known to the evil one. Because my daughter refused her access to my grandson, she took her accusations and the video to the police and filed charges against my grandson. He was interrogated in the presence of my daughter. She had already retained an attorney and sought his advice for everything. The case was dismissed and unfounded after the investigation. Just like we knew it would be. But the damage was done. Both grandchildren were scarred. All because she wanted money. My son's release date approached, and I scheduled a trip to be there and pick him up. Since I was the only one who actually visited him, it was fitting that I should pick him up. It was...

  I posted twice yesterday, so the story is a little out of order at this point. We knew she would retaliate for the losing her opportunity to milk more money from my son. But the lengths she went to are just evil. My daughter and her son were awaiting their flight to the east coast to visit with one her friends. I forget where exactly, I want to say Connecticut. I can say for sure that it was close to New York. This was a trip they were both looking forward to. I was the only member of our family that was receiving the daily barrage of texts and emails from the evil one. This particular day was a doozy. The text I opened was a video of Child Three, sitting on her bed talking into the phone. In the background I could clearly hear the mother as she coached that innocent child to "describe" being molested by my grandson! It was very clear that she was coaching her "remember, you told me he did this or that". Prior to this, my grandson was always around their house fro...

I could go on and on about the peculiar woman my son found himself tied to even after the divorce. I am sure he is not alone in this situation that others have, no doubt found themselves in. When I decided to remove myself from my previous marriages, I made a clean break. I wanted nothing more than to be left alone. I made it clear and that is what happened. I didn't want child support or anything monetary that would obligate me to share my childrens' lives with them.  I might have "won" in that regard but that came with its own challenges. My son did not want to be an outsider in his girls' lives, still doesn't. He pays his child support and much more. They have easy access to their Dad for emotional and monetary support. A mere phone call will bring food delivery of their choice, money for extra activities at school and even eye lash extensions. He would drown his frustration in alcohol. Holding it all in, he never complained about her, even to me. (I should...

  During the unfortunate incarceration, my grandson was renting a room at my son's house. He was not there alone, though. I need to explain my ex-daughter-in-law's strange relationship with the girls' birth parents and extended families. Whether or not I agreed with her (I didn't, my entire family thought she was bizarre in her parenting), she insisted that the birth parents be given plane tickets to visit the girls every summer. No, the girls do not share any parents. This meant that my son shelled out a healthy amount of money to fulfill the wish of his crazy wife and they housed and fed 6 extra adults and two siblings every year. One year they went to Disney World! Like I said she likes spending the money of other people. Makes her look so generous.  On one such visit my youngest daughter overheard the mother of Child Three opine that my son should help them all out financially since they had "given" them their children. My baby girl likes to share her opin...

  At no point in time did she curtail her extravagant spending habits. She spent and my son or her mom picked up the tab. She was quite generous with the money of others. I am purging myself of this by writing. You will note that I am not using names on the off chance that she would discover my new blog that is under a different name. She threatened to sue me for using my granddaughters' names and images on my blog. She tried to get a judge to force me to erase my previous blogs. She failed to get one to order me to do so. I had long since stopped posting pictures and stories about them. I no longer had a relationship with them, so it was a moot point. One day before I was planning to leave to go to my son's house, I got a text message from her accusing me of trying to kill one of the girls' cats. Since I was in Missouri and the cat was at my son's house in Minnesota, I am pretty sure her accusation was unfounded. The cat in question refused to use the litter box. This ...

  You must be tired of my tirade about my stalker. It could be a book with a happy ending in sight. Anyhoo, now that Spring has finally sprung, I have been busy with all the gardens. My veggies are planted, and some are still pushing through the ground, while others are sporting flowers that will turn into strawberries and peas. I turned my attention to landscaping areas that have yet to be done. I am happy to announce that the handful of daylilies I planted upon arrival have multiplied. So have the iris. I have three varieties of iris. The deep purple miniature and then yellow and lighter purple bearded put on a spectacular display. The entire embankment that graces the side of our driveway is full of colorful flowers. Three rose bushes that I happened upon and transferred to the embankment are in full bloom. Two peonies are blooming, and the blooms are so big the branches can barely hold them upright. The azaleas are done now, but they put their own show on. I am very pleased wit...

  Before the divorce my daughter-in-law decided that she wanted to adopt more children, adding more stress to my son's already unhappy existence. He kept all of his misgivings to himself and put on a happy face every time he saw me. The times that we were together were way too few, so it was easy enough to act like all was okay around me for a limited time. I may have failed to mention that the girls are black and the two (yes, two!) she now wanted to adopt were black as well. Made no difference to us, but I got the distinct impression that she enjoyed the attention this afforded her. She liked people to think she was a such a good person, taking in these children and giving them such a great life. The two in question were a brother and sister in the foster system. The boy was just a bit older than Child One and the girl was close to Child Two's age. When adopting from the foster system there are more conditions that have to be met. They had 3 bedrooms and another bedroom in th...

  How do you not have a bedtime for children? This is what I was thinking as the evening wore on. The TV was on, but it could not be heard over the noise in that house. I was trying to not interfere. My own mother was a constant thorn in my side as she would tell me what I should and shouldn't do with my own children. She would also undermine our authority as parents, telling my oldest two children that they did not have to listen to my husband, he was not their father. This made me want to NEVER be like her. I figured that my daughter-in-law was in charge when she was there and I nearly bit my tongue off keeping quiet. Little did I know that she had given all three children permission to sleep with Gramma. I read until I was hoarse, and they finally fell asleep, then removed myself from the bed and slept on the couch until my son came home from work and removed Child One from the bed to give me a space to sleep. Okay. I admit that if one of my children woke in the night and came i...

  I always welcomed any chance to go to Minnesota and see my kids. Of course, this meant I had to leave my husband in charge at the kampground. This was always an iffy proposition for me. I love my husband, but he is the least organized person I know. After I banned him from taking reservations, he was happy to leave it all to me. So, we compromised and forwarded the business line to my cell phone. This meant that when I traveled, I also took reservations. Driving, flying, walking. I rarely messed up the bookings, while my husband would assign the same site to two, sometimes three different parties. It was easier to just do it myself. I can multitask, like most women who run a household. I flew to Minnesota to take care of three little girls. It would be a vacation, right? The first day I woke to find my son in the kitchen, the first grader on his lap, dressed for school while he spoon fed her breakfast. He told my raised eyebrows that she wouldn't eat breakfast unless he fed her. ...

  You all probably recall my old blog and the reason I had to go "under cover". My stalker is my ex-daughter-in-law. For some reason she wants to be included in everything about my family. She used to joke that the neighbor children thought she was a witch with her long dark hair and her wardrobe of mostly black clothes. Oh, and all her cats. Now that I look back, maybe she was trying to tell us something. She is 7 years older than my son. She started chasing him while he was still in high school and would joke that she never wanted to be known as a cradle robber. Back then, I thought she was a lovely young woman and would be a good match for my child. I admit that I was bewitched! My husband never liked her. I don't know if she knew this or even sensed it since he didn't have much to say to her and treated her much the same way he treated any of my friends. She had a child from a previous marriage that was just a bit older than my oldest grandchild. That didn't b...

  So, yesterday I cleaned the carport and threw away trash. It always annoys my husband, Drew when I get stuff for free off of marketplace. He says things like: "We already have enough junk." and "What will you do with it?" He lacks creativity! And IT IS FREE! I end up using most everything I acquire and making something useful. Instead of seeing what we might have on hand that might work for a project, he just hops in his truck and comes back with new materials. Never the correct amount and never buying everything in one trip. This makes me a little crazy. Now that the carport is neat and tidy, I wonder how long it will be before I will be faced with doing it again. I also wonder what the feral cats will think when they show up for their evening meal. He has named them, so I would think that means they are pets. He buys cat food in the biggest size available and keeps it stored in the back of his truck. We have a large trash can with a good lid we keep dogfood in o...