Wacky Neighbors

This photo was taken July 12th. 

And this one was taken two months later on September 10th.

As I sit here and turn my head slightly to look out my window I can see that it is still out there sopping wet due to the rain we just had and it;s not going anywhere in a hurry it seems.  You can see the fallen leaves gathering at the bottom on the grass.

That top photo was taken at least a month after this monstrosity first appeared abandoned alongside their garage.  Every time I look at it, it seems to shout at me, Look at me, I am a thing of beauty...complete with chalk drawings.

This thing may have started life as a stove, washer or dryer carton.  It then became a house which was set up in their messy back yard.  When the rain soaked it beyond being usable, it was put where it still resides.

By leaving it where it is, it has become a haven for rodents to shelter underneath and that attracts our cats to go onto their property to get those rodents.  And not only that, it is eventually going to kill their shrubbery.  Not that I care.

I believe now that I have started posting about these people that I have enough photos and thoughts in my head to post something every couple of days that would take me far beyond my imagination, and yours.  With plenty more to come.  Every time I think they have gone and done something really stupid, they do something far worse.  Wait till you hear about the fire pit, the tent, and the wind.  Nobody was hurt...yet.

We are dancing with one of our township supervisors about the numerous dumb-headed things they have done (and probably will continue to do) that is against ordinances and just being completely ignorant.  But so far that supervisor has promised three separate times that a letter would go out warning them of their wrongdoings...and still no letter has been sent to them.

On Monday of this week my husband talked to that same supervisor in person and he said he would get a letter out.  This would be our third request for a letter.  My husband asked that we get a copy.  Still no letter.  I don't know what it will take to make the township realize just how much these people put others in jeopardy with their asinine activities that go against ordinances for the township.

You can bet your last dime that I will be posting more about them.  I have just recently cataloged all my pictures of them and their property messes into one place so I now have easier access to them.  I have been putting off posting about their antics far too long and I need to get it out of my system.

 

Happy Happy Joy Joy

The results of my husband's colonoscopy is in.  Everything is A-Okay.  No polyps, no nothing.  Just that good old diverticulosis.  That is the name of the condition and when those little diverticula get upset it becomes diverticulitis.  It is just that which started this whole summer of upheaval.  It started there and it ended there.  

Oh, there was one other minor problem.  A tumor was found in his bladder.  Two kinds.  One that grows like a carpet and one that grew upward.  After a scraping of everything that didn't belong in there, the pathologist found that despite the fact of being malignant they were very superficial.  That means they were just on the surface and hadn't grown into anything.  Very low grade and very very slow growing.  They are caused by smoking.  My husband quit 15 years ago last month.  You would think something like that would not show up after 15 years but the nasty little suckers certainly did show up.  And what a fright they gave the both of us.

After they were scraped out, Mitomycin was introduced and left in the bladder for an hour to cook as the urologist told us with a smile on his face.  It is supposed to help keep them from coming back and taking up residence to grow again.  Husband goes back in three months for a follow-up and another test to make sure nothing is in there.  That will happen, I assume, every three months or until the urologist deems it is no longer necessary.

Let me tell you...it has been one hell of a summer starting with the first severe abdominal pains at the end of May leading right up until yesterday's colonoscopy.

At least for now, we can breathe again.   It's a glorious feeling.

 

Naughty Me

I should be horsewhipped for not writing more often.  I have been very busy purging things from this house and I am far from being done.  One room in particular has been the center of my attention.  That is what we call the middle room.  It could also be referred to as the attic we don't have.  Once we moved into this house that room became the place that we stored things we thought we would use some day, also things we got tired of using, and things that just didn't fit into the current scheme of any room.  The you-go-in-here-until-I-am-ready-for-you room. 


The sad thing is I never got to the point of needing anything once I chucked it in there.  I could open the door into the room and step into it and maybe walk a tiny bit but that was as far as I could go.  Not any more.  I am finding things that make me shake my head wondering what the hell was I thinking when I put those things in there.  Boxes of this and boxes of that and some that don't make any sense at all.  Well guess what?  It is really a lot of fun throwing them out now. 


It has also been a summer from hell as far as my husband's health is concerned. 
He has an appointment for a colonoscopy Tuesday.  To bring us to this point in time for that test has been a long, long journey that started at the end of May when he complained about lower abdominal pains.  One thing led to another: first an ultrasound and then a CT scan which revealed far more than we were willing to accept.  He saw a urologist and a gastroenterologist, but this colonoscopy hopefully will be the end of the journey.  In between everything else he has also seen his cardiologist which brought good news because nothing has changed from the same tests he had a year ago.


I am here now to apologize for being negligent.  I will try to do better.  Once we get the results back from this last test and they are good results, perhaps I will be in a better mood to write about other things that are more upbeat.


Why did I finally attack the superfluous items in this house?  Well, when you get slapped up side the head with possible bad news you go into a frenzy and try to keep yourself busy.  My husband made it over one hurdle (perhaps one of the hardest hurdles there is) and now we are hoping he makes it over another.


And to make things more interesting, my husband finally decided it was time to get rid of all our vintage Mustangs (six of them ranging from 1965 to 1972) as well as all the Mustang parts he has accumulated over the years.  Everything will be auctioned off the beginning of October.  He hand built a two story garage (I always called it a barn) by himself (I helped as much as I could) that measures 32 ft. by 48 ft.  We managed to concrete half of it inside and never had the gumption to do the other side.  The Mustangs have been housed in there on the first floor with all the parts and other things on the second floor for many years.  When we started accumulating Mustangs and parts it was with the idea that when my husband retired he would have something to work on.  That never materialized due to his knee replacement, another knee replacement on the same knee, and then a partial replacement of the second replacement.  I know!


Like I said in the beginning of this, it has been one heck of a summer.  Seeing doctors, having tests, waiting for results...I guess you could say it was the summer I never had. 

Summer's Gone

On the calendar, that is.  We had 90° weather today with more hot days to follow.  Very unusual for September in these parts.

I love summer and I love spring even more.  Fall is okay as well except for what looms behind it:  dreadful winter.

Someone said this coming winter is going to be as harsh as last year.  Last winter was awful to say the least.  I don't know if I can get through another one like it.

At least this winter there is one thing we won't have to worry about:  shoveling snow.  Husband bought an older pickup and plow that will be used strictly for clearing snow all around our three acres.  That means no license and no registration to worry about.  We already have those expenses with our Mustang GT, F-150 pickup, and Harley.

We have had snow blowers, snow throwers, snow shovels, you name it, we had it.  But nothing compares to a truck and plow.  Nothing.

Just Thinking Out Loud

It's really amazing how the decisions we make throughout our lives change a lot of things along the way.


Like, say for instance, we have two choices confronting us.  We make our choice and go on about our business.  But what would the outcome have been had we made the other choice instead?  How do we know we really made the right choice?


Life is all about decisions.  I don't know if I made all the right ones and had I made different decisions than the ones I actually made, where would I be today?


I am happy where I am at so I am going to convince myself I made all the correct choices.  Or did I?

A Lot Of Bears On My Hands

I can't recall just when it was I started collecting Beanie Babies, but once I started I bought almost every bear that came out.  As a result I now have scads of them.  And most of them were in their own plastic case made especially for them.  All the ear tags are encased in plastic as well.  Yes, I have those three above.  And the one below is one of my personal favorites.

 This is Libearty below.  To find it wasn't easy and when I did, it was quite expensive so I can say that I paid the most for it.  I also sent it away to be researched and documented to make sure it was worth what I paid for it.

When I lost my job back in June of 2005 I stopped buying them.  What a relief that was because collecting them was like an addiction.  And not only did I purchase the beanies stateside, I branched out to the ones around the world as well via eBay.  Needless to say I have quite a bit of money wrapped up in these once very highly collectible bears.

I used to line them up one on top of the other in their plastic cases in the living room, but that got to be too much so I put them all away in cardboard boxes and piled those up instead.  Last week I decided to do something about them since they were still parked in my living room...a room we rarely use; however, it is the first room entered when someone comes into our front door and therefore those boxes had become somewhat of an eyesore.

I took every bear out of its case and put them into two large totes.  The cases went back into the boxes they came out of minus the bears and went into the basement.  I still have other bears that never saw a case because I got tired of buying the cases so I put each one into its own zip lock bag.  In the next week or so I will go through those as well and write down the name of every bear (and a few other animals that I liked and bought along the way) and then they will be put into a space bag cube or two and compressed with the air vacuumed out. 

What was once a highly-demanded collectible is now nothing more than a simple toy.  Most of them were sold new for $5-6 and now one is lucky to be able to sell them at garage sales for $1-2.  What a shame because they will never be what they once were.  But I am not alone.  There are others out there in the same boat as I am.  The only difference is, I am reducing the space they were taking up.

Doing The Happy Dance

God bless Dale Earnhardt Jr. for enlightening my day!


He swept both Pocono races this year, meaning he won both of them including today's race.  Prior to this year he had never won a race at that track.  And up until four years ago he hated having to race at that track.  Somewhere along the line he came to terms with the track and today it became his best buddy so to speak.


He now has three wins this year out of 21 races, and is sitting on top of the points for the Chase which will start September 14th at the Chicagoland track.


Thank you, Dale Jr.


(I tried posting a photo here but Blogger is misbehaving).

Time For An Update

A lot has happened since I last wrote. 


I guess the most important thing to say is my husband has acute diverticulitis.  This is the second go-around for him and the first time it happened was so long ago he never thought it would invade his colon again.  Well, it did and with a vengeance.  He is currently on another antibiotic a few days longer than the first ones prescribed.  If this doesn't work the next step is surgery.  Fingers crossed.


This summer two of our female cats outside had 6 kittens.  Three kittens per mother.  They are about two months apart though.  The second litter was born to Jackie One-Eye.  I wasn't sure what sex she was until she brought her kittens around.  She has one eye and that is the way she first appeared to us when she was old enough to be on her own.  Prior to that we had never seen her but I knew she belonged to our bunch.


She only has one kitten left.  A calico.  It, too, has only one eye.  I might add here that we currently have a pair of red-tailed hawks lurking around in our trees for the past week.  They preyed on those other two kittens.  Swiped them right out of the yard.  Red-tailed hawks are protected in the US, Canada, and Mexico.  Why, I don't know because they are predators and will pick up anything that is twice their weight.  I hate them.  My father hated them.  I hope they leave soon.  They are so protected you are not allowed to even so much as harass them.  How does one harass a hawk?


My husband's brother is in sad shape.  We just got word Saturday that he is in hospice.  I hate times like these.  Here I am dealing with what might be wrong with my husband and everything else around me is falling apart. 


I am sorry this is not an upbeat post but life isn't always fun. 

Yep..Still Plodding Along

Today I had my regular checkup at our family doctor.  When it was over I mentioned something about my husband and his pain and not being able to see the gastroenterologist for another three weeks.  He became very sympathetic and worked my husband into the time slot right after me. 


I have become quite upset about what is going on with his pain and the fact that he has to live with it for another three weeks before anything else will get done.
The family doctor said he would re-evaluate him.  He had last seen him the first week of June when he prescribed a week's worth of two antibiotics which didn't work against whatever is roaming around in there.


When we went back again the beginning of this month our regular doctor was on vacation and that doctor prescribed the ultrasound and blood work which both came back normal.  (I know I mentioned all this in my last post but this is just a refresher for myself.)


After the doctor checked my husband today (hands on) and couldn't find anything that way so he thought it was best to order a CT scan.  Ultrasounds don't always pick things up as a CT scan does.  One step at a time I guess.  Husband was also asked to leave a urine sample as well.  The CT scan will be done this Monday. 


Once the results are back and the doctor has them I will be able to see those same results online.  We signed up for that service today while at the office.  We could only sign one of us up since we both share the same email address.  I do have another address but my head was too muddled to think straight and I was afraid I would get it messed up so I left it go for another time.  Besides, it is my husband that has been having tests and not me.


By the way, my tooth doesn't hurt.  There was a two week span when it hurt like the dickens and I didn't know which way to turn but that subsided and went away and hasn't returned.  It is infected and it does have to come out but with all this stuff going on with my husband, the tooth will have to wait.  Unless it flares up again, which I doubt will happen.

Plodding Along

July is just flying by.  This summer has been an odd one.  We went through such a hellacious winter and then before we knew it summer came with a vengeance and slapped us in the face.  And it's still slapping.  I don't mind the heat though, not as much as I mind (hate) the cold of winter.  Besides, winter costs a lot more than summer does.


A few weeks ago my husband complained of having what he called a gut ache.  Actually, it was located in the lower left quadrant.  More than two decades ago he developed diverticulitis and was worried it may have come back despite being so careful as to what he ate.


He called the doctor and got an appointment.  An abdominal ultrasound was ordered as well as more blood drawn but for different reasons than usual.  The ultrasound came back normal. At least we know his pancreas, liver, and kidneys are doing fine.  Sometimes one of those organs can cause the pain he is having.


The next step was to call a gastroenterologist.  Our family doctor gave us the phone number of the practice they use as a referral.  My husband called them only to find out they are booked until early August.  The 5th to be exact.  He told the person there that he would check around to see if he could find something closer to now.  After searching for gastroenterologists covered by our insurance, all we could come up with was one other practice.  They, too, were booked till early August.  The 7th to be exact.


So my husband called the first practice again but by that time the 5th was gone and all they had open was the 6th.  He grabbed it.  By then I was a tad weary just listening to him.  Normally I do all the legwork but this time I made him do the calling.  He did a very good job.  I think I would have been swearing like a sailor after the first call.


So now we wait for him to see the gastro doctor.  I should add here that when he saw the family doctor he was prescribed two different antibiotics.  Neither of those worked for his pain so diverticulitis was ruled out since antibiotics take care of what causes that.  I wish it were that easy those decades ago when he first had it...he was in the hospital over a week till they got him straightened out.


So far besides my tooth problem (I still have it), this pain my husband has is the most excitement we have going.  I shouldn't say excitement because it really isn't exciting at all.  Worriment would be a better choice of word.


So until something else rears its ugly head giving me something to write about, that is all I have for now.

Germany Spanked Brazil 7-1

Up until a few weeks ago I have never watched, nor did I ever attempt to watch, a soccer game on TV.  It just never occurred to me to do so.

And then one day while dining out, there on the TV was a soccer game.  The Greek owner of the diner was in the vestibule watching the game so we sat with him for awhile.  We would have stayed longer but we had somewhere we had to be.  

I became aware of the World Cup games at that point and started watching the games played by the U.S.  I watched their last three games before they finally were declared out of the running.

Something I have found out since is that the World Cup is only played every four years.  It takes them three years to decide who will play for the Cup.

Once the games had been narrowed down to the semi-finals with Germany one of the final four teams, my interest heightened.  My fifth great grandfather came to this country from the region now known as Germany.  His last name is the same as my maiden name, so I am a direct descendant.  

I knew Germany was playing Brazil today but I didn't turn the game on until 20 some minutes had passed.  By then the score was 4-0, Germany.  Those four points apparently were scored in the first six minutes.  

Germany now faces the winner of the Argentina-Netherlands game for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Go Germany!

 

Time Out

My absence from blogging is due to computer issues.  I think it was around the beginning of this year when someone stole my email address and started sending hundreds of emails using it.  That caught the eye of my Internet provider and they shut down my account.

Naturally that caused me to make a phone call to them to see what the reason was for shutting me down.  They didn't cut off my Internet, just my email account.  After they explained everything to me, I then had to go through the motions of getting me back in the fold by changing my password.

Within a few days after the password change, my router decided it didn't like the new password and cut me off from the Internet.  I had to call my provider again to tell me how to circumvent the router and get me back in business.  It has been that way ever since.  That means I no longer had the use of my laptop because I had a wireless network between my PC and my laptop.  My printer was not part of the wireless network.

Last week my printer decided to puke.  I bought another one but I don't want to hook it up without using the wireless network (that no longer exists and I need to redo everything).

My router is a Cisco Valet Plus.  How nice to find out they no longer manufacture them.  I loved it.  It was so easy to hook up and never gave me any problems.  But that's another story and I am getting off track here.  When I had the Cisco all hooked up back in 2010 I found out that since my PC is not wireless I had to buy a wireless adapter which I did.  I purchased a Cisco Valet Connector.  Do you think I can find that now?  Nope.  I tore just about everything apart in this room and still no adapter.  Every day I look and every day I come up empty handed.  I did, however, find the packing slip as well as the bill (in two separate places).

I am now waiting for a day that I can set aside to work on hooking up the Cisco Valet Plus to see if it works.  If it does, I will probably buy a new adapter and go on my merry way.  If it doesn't work, then I have to buy another router as well as an adapter.

With all this going on, it has kept me quite busy.  And then there is the household I still have to run.  It's not like I can just sit down and let everything else go just to get my computer's wireless network up and running.  Plus the fact that since I am not tech savvy whatsoever, I keep dragging my feet because I always feel whatever I try to do will not work and then I will be frustrated and walk away letting a few more days slip by.  For now I am happy that I have the Internet but I need to speed things up because working without a printer is the pits. 

And now you know the rest of the story...

 

Boy, Do I Have A Dilemma

In January 2013 I had a topical filling on my #7 upper lateral incisor.  It cost me $145 and didn't take long to do.  I can't remember exactly when but last year I had severe pain in that same tooth, up into the root system as well.  That pain came and went for about three weeks and then it abruptly stopped.  A few weeks later it kicked in again.  I had a dental appointment so I told my hygienist what had happened.  She assured me that happens and it was probably just a result of the filling.  

This past Monday I had another dental appointment.  I had a routine cleaning and an exam by the dentist.  She saw a tiny blister above my #7 tooth and ordered an X-ray of that tooth.  When she developed the X-ray and came back into the room she said, I'm sorry, but I have some very bad news.  I thought to myself, how bad could it be?

She then told me that my tooth was cracked and infected and followed that up with the various options to fix it.  She first ruled out a root canal mainly because they rarely work in a situation like mine.  She then told me about having an implant and discussed that procedure.

First they extract the tooth and then a temporary partial is inserted which stays there until the implant tooth is ready to be inserted.  This procedure is very expensive (I do not have dental insurance) and it takes 6-8 months from start to finish, give or take a month or two.  

Another procedure is a bridge similar to this:

The dentist said this procedure costs almost as much as an implant but she didn't recommend having it done either.  Neither did I and that was quickly ruled out.

When I was finished with that consultation I was handed a paper with the detailed pricing for an implant.  Starting with the extraction, inserting the partial, and then two other steps before finally inserting the implant, it would cost $3475.00 before my 5% discount.  Well, I don't have to tell you what I think of that.  Preposterous, I say.  At my age why should I put out that kind of money for one lousy tooth when I could kick the bucket tomorrow?

After paying my bill I questioned the dentist about what would happen if all I did was get the tooth extracted and nothing more?  She looked at me kind of funny and said, Nothing.  And that was the end of that.  I left the office, my head reeling, not knowing what I was going to do.

I have given this a lot of thought and have definitely ruled out getting a bridge as well as getting an implant.  All I want to do at this time is get the darn tooth pulled and be done with it, except that it is in such a prominent spot.

This is not my mouth, it is from the Internet but this is what it would look like if all I did was had the tooth extracted.  I don't know what else to do since these, supposedly, are my only options according to my dentist.

I do have one option left, and that is to go to a different dentist and get another opinion.  Granted, I know for certain that the tooth has to be pulled, but I would like to know if there are any other options available to me that don't cost as much or take as long.  Or if there is a way that something else can be done cheaper.

I am upset because the filling the dentist did is what eventually caused the crack and that caused the infection.  According to what I read these things happen all the time.  And another thing that upsets me is that I am not all that gung ho over my current dentist and hygienist.  The only reason I stayed with them is because they had all my old records from the other dentist.  At the end of 2011 my (male) dentist retired and the current gang took over the practice.

  I prefer a male dentist because that is all I ever had from the age of three years old. This current one is a female (from another country) and from the get-go I just felt as if I was being taken advantage of because I pay cash.  And as much as I complained that I simply do not have the cash to pay for the things they want to do, well...that just falls on deaf ears.  Whether I have the cash or not, that is not the point.  She has been after me to get several teeth crowned (molars) because they have spider cracks...cracks that have been there for many years.  I have always had good strong teeth so those cracks don't worry me in the least.  She worries me more.

So here I sit, still the owner of my #7 tooth, not knowing what to do...
 

Stop The Merry-G-Round, I Want To Get Off

Half of June is over and soon the longest day will be here and then the days start to get shorter.  How did this happen so fast?  Where does the time go?  Especially after the super harsh winter we had.  I want the warm weather to stay longer than we get to have it.

Do you see that pool?  That belongs to our neighbor.  I am so thankful now that I decided to plant those forsythia bushes as well as the maple tree between them. Today they have enough leaves on all three to block out that pool so that whenever they are in it, or have company, I don't have to look at them when I am on our deck.  And they can't see me, either.  Thank the Lord for small miracles.

This flower bed needs some serious straightening out.  Daffodils come up in the spring and those chubby things in the back of the daffodil plant as well those on the right are Iris plants.  Needless to say most everything else is just plain old weeds.  Back breakers.  It isn't easy for me to weed this bed.  I have had ongoing lower back problems now for well over twenty-plus years.  

We have had a lot of rain the past few days so weeding this bed should be a little easier for me.  We bought mulch to put here as well as under our weeping cherry tree in the front yard.  That thing grows like a weed.  I cut it back severely just before winter and the limbs will be to the ground in another month or so.

Getting back to the plot in the picture above:  I have a bunch of Iris rhizomes that I wanted to plant before last winter and never got around to doing it, so I stored them in a cool, dry place.  I recently read that I can plant them in July so I hope that gets done next month and isn't one more thing I let slide by.

Honestly, I just don't know where the time goes.  Looking at the clock on my computer I see it is already Sunday.  Most of the day will be spent watching prerace programs as well as the race itself.  Monday I have a dental appointment and some pet food shopping to do.  Tuesday my husband has two tests he does annually at the cardiologist that will take four hours.  And I sit and wait for him.  We do this every year.  I take enough food and snacks and the time usually goes fairly fast for me.  Wednesday is our grocery shopping day.  I think Thursday is already planned for something my husband wants to do because he asked me if that day is open.  And that brings us to Friday which is the start of racing programs that continue into Saturday and Sunday and we are back to square one.  

See what I mean?  I shouldn't even have to ask where the time goes, it seems I already answered my own question.
 

He Did It, He Really Did It

Congratulations to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his second victory of the season.  The last time he won more than one race in any season was back in 2004...the year he won six races.

So far this year he has won the Daytona 500 and the race at Pocono yesterday. I would have loved to have been there since the track is almost in my back yard.

Here's to you Dale ~ may you have many more victories this season.

Things To Ponder

Why aren't people more aware of where things are made before purchasing them?  Not only products, but food as well.  Please try and buy things made in the USA.  I know our country isn't making it easy for us to do that, but please try anyway.

There are so many shenanigans going on with our food supply and they aren't funny to me.  I shop at Wegmans.  The majority of their fresh meats come from farms in the US.  Fruits and vegetables come from local farms during the growing months and other areas of the US over the winter.  They also have a huge array of organic foods.  I also shop at another grocery store but I rarely buy things there that I am not sure about where they came from.
 **********
Here is a statistic that is all too scary:  One out of every 68 children in the US is born autistic.  Does that mean that eventually we will be a nation of nothing but autistic people?  Think about it.

Why is/was Nelson Mandela treated like a saint after he died?  Bing or Google The Crimes of Nelson Mandela and you'll see what I mean.

 
 

Yeah, I know, pink isn't really my color but the people at Wal*mart don't know that.

Our Trip North

We left the house around 10:30 on Sunday on the bike.  We stopped for gas and breakfast as well.  The skies didn't look too promising when we left. I had checked the weather for the area we were going to that morning and it looked like it would turn out OK.  Sunny, clear, and 60°.  By the time we were on the road for about half an hour, the gray clouds left and the puffy white ones took over and allowed the sun to shine.

The photo above is where we bought our Harley.

 

All of these photos were taken while in motion on the bike.  The sun was out so I couldn't see the viewfinder very well and for the most part all I did was aim, snap, and hope for the best.

This is coming down the mountainside into the little town of Jim Thorpe, named after the famous American Indian football player.  They were having a celebration of some kind but we didn't stop for that.  Jim Thorpe is nestled in a small valley where the mountains come together.  It has been called Little Switzerland in the past.  This photo does not do justice to how deeply it is nestled.  Yes, a river runs through it.  A lot of white water rafting can be done on that river for the brave ones.

When we reached the southern portion of Hickory Run State Park I noticed the foliage on the trees was very sparse.  I was disappointed because I thought there would be heavier foliage by now, but I guess the nasty winter we had postponed the growing season somewhat.

,

This is Boulder Lake.  Again, this photo like the others was taken while in motion after we left the parking area.  I had no idea whether I captured the lake until I went through all the photos.  We drove into the parking area but decided not to get off the bike like we did last Fall when we were here.  Nothing had changed and there was no activity on the lake.

We now focused on trying to find Boulder Field.  After stopping to get directions twice, and getting different answers both times, we flagged down a park worker.  He said, Follow me.  He got us to the turnoff and said it is about 3 miles in.  Three miles?  How about six plus?  These next two photos show the kind of road it was...we should never have taken the bike on this so-called road.  Three miles would have been OK maybe, but six miles in and six miles out was a bit much.

 And finally we arrived.  I read this first to acclimate myself with the history of the boulders.  There were other writings as well.  I finally was at one of the places on my Bucket List.  When I was small my parents brought my brother and me to see this place.  It made quite an impression on my young mind.  It was awesome then and it was just as awesome Sunday.

Of course, all these photos of the boulders were taken while on foot.  We parked the bike, walked to the edge, and just enjoyed the beauty of it all.  However, it seemed I was the only one enjoying it.  My husband was a little cross with me for having to take the bike that far on that dirt road.  Had we known it was that far in we may not have tried it.  When we got there he said,  All that for a pile of rocks?  Men.

 As you can see, there are people out there.  You are allowed to walk as far as you want and explore as much as you want.  All they ask is that no one disturbs any boulders, or takes any, or adds graffiti.  We did see three rocks where people painted on them. 

When we left Boulder Field it seemed as if the temperature had dropped somewhat.  The skies started darkening once again.  This photo is after we had driven through Jim Thorpe again on our way home.

We stopped at the same place we had breakfast to have our dinner.  We were on the road six hours.  Did I enjoy myself?  You bet I did.  Am I ready to go again?  You bet I am.

Earlier I said I was disappointed in the foliage.  I was expecting to see more leaves and a lot of blossoming trees like wild apple, wild cherry, anything that gets a blossom on it in the Spring.  All I saw were a few wild dogwood trees once in a while with a few flowers on them.

Our next trip will be when it is a lot warmer with the sun shining all day long and no threat of showers or rain.  We did feel a few sprinkles at one point but nothing to worry about.  When the temperature is around 60° and you are on a bike you have to factor in that it will be a helluva lot colder while riding~anywhere from 40-50 degrees instead of 60.  I was dressed for that so it didn't really bother me.  I'm far from a wimp.

How I Spent Mothers Day

 I'm the mother of one human (female) and four fur babies (one female, three males).  Above is my little girl, Dakota-Sioux aka Princess aka Cody.

Lying in the sun is Punkin'.  He's quite petite, just like his mother was.

 This is Junior, named after you-know-who.  Hint: my favorite NASCAR driver.

And finally we have Eli on the right with brother Punkin' on the left.  I'm a NY Giants fan, can you guess who Eli was named after?  Believe it or not, Eli is our baby.  He is also our biggest cat.

My husband named Punkin' so that's why his name is not like the others who were all named after someone or something like Dakota.

I guess being the cat mommy of these four-legged sweeties allows me to celebrate Mothers Day.  My daughter was here the day before to help celebrate the day as well.

On Sunday my husband wanted to take me out to dinner.  We usually go to Chris's Restaurant on Mothers Day and that is where we went again this year.  The temperature was around 80° by the time we were ready to leave so it was decided we would take our fifth "baby" ~

Yes, this was my first ride of the year and I am sure there will be many more to follow.  Last Fall we took a trip north toward the Poconos but it was cold and raw and I made a decision to come back to that area in the spring.  Well, that time is here.  The difference this time is that it will be so much warmer and we also know where we want to go and how to get there.  Last fall it was just hit or miss and we never did find one of the lakes we were looking for.  I have since figured out what route to take to get to that lake.  I plan on taking two kinds of cameras so there will be a lot of pictures taken.

I am really looking forward to this trip as well as the trees that are blooming now.  Our plans are to go next Sunday if the weather is nice and both of us are still in one piece.

After The Rain...

We have had a lot of rain the past few days.  But this morning the sky was blue and the clouds were white and fluffy.  The sun is not out in the photo above; it just looks that way.

This is what it looked like when I lifted my eyes to the sky and saw the sun just behind those clouds:

After I took care of the outside cats and was walking back toward the front of the house, I noticed that the daffodils took a beating from the rain but those darn dandelions were proudly beaming with their bright yellow flowers as if to say we can withstand almost anything.

The daffodils in the front of the house survived the brutal winds and heavy rains.  These daffodils are supposed to be white with a pink center but you have to look hard to see the pink.  And, yes, that is how green our grass is already after having to look out only to see nothing but brown for months on end.

This is my Cape Cod buoy wind bell.  It takes a good, strong wind for it to make any sound so whenever I walk by it, either coming or going, I give it a good shake.  That house belongs to our crazy neighbors, and that's being as nice as I can be.

Here's another photo of the wind bell taken from the other side with our King Ranch F-150.

And, yes, old Betsy is still doing its job of keeping our electricity lower than it would be without her.  It was actually spinning while I shot this.

After a day of sunshine we ended up with more rain once again.  But guess what?  The sun will come out tomorrow...