Dandelion Festival 2021

  It was a rainy week and weekend here, but that did not dampen all of the festivities for the first Dandelion Festival since Covid-19 put everyone on lockdown in 2020.

  I was only able to enjoy the events first hand Saturday evening after I got off work, and Sunday, but I did enjoy listening to the band playing at the Road Hog BBQ on Friday night since I could hear it from my back patio. (it was much less deja-vu-do-do than the band the week prior on Thursday).

  Charlie and I walked down on Saturday to sit and listen to the band.  His "little man syndrome" was a bit of an embarrassment when he first tried to challenge police dogs, and then a German shepherd on the street.  Even more of a problem came when he wanted to eat a much smaller Yorkie that was trying to enjoy the music as well.  I will probably not be able to take him to events in the future and will just have to walk him away from any other dogs.

  The rain did not stop the fireworks on Saturday night, and I found out that the house I'm renting is so close to where they set off the pyrotechnics that the house actually shakes.  It actually sounded like a bomb going off when they sent up the first one an hour before they were scheduled because of the weather. The cats were not thrilled.  At.  All.

  Yesterday I walked down to watch the parade.  I tried an interesting "fair food" concoction of chicken waffles on a stick.  The waffle batter smelled like it had cinnamon in it, and would probably have been better with melted butter and syrup by itself.  The syrup was offered, however, I've not been able to eat it for decades without a rather unpleasant reaction from the effect it has on my blood sugar.  It is my Jeckyl and Hyde formula.

Miss West Virginia

   I'm not sure what parades were like in the past.  If the move to homeschooling because of Covid-19 shut down school bands or music programs.  But it was a rather short and sweet parade consisting of only vehicles.  Leading it was veterans of various wars, followed by more pageant queens than I've ever seen in one place ~ at least ten young ladies and girls tossing out candy to rival Halloween.  Bringing up the end were local fire trucks and firefighters.

  Next month, there will be a Renaissance Fair in Lewisburg that I'm going to plan on going to one Sunday.  I've never been to one, other than a Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament restaurant in California.  I think I'm more interested in crafts, falconry, and horses than swordplay tho.  I'm also very over any more plagues and pestilence in this century.  

Déjà vu ~ do*do

Thursdays are a big event in town.  Shops on Main Street stay open longer.  A band plays at the BBQ restaurant close enough for me to hear, and smell the BBQ grilling.  I could walk over and join them if I wanted to.

Last night when I got off work I sat in the backyard with Little Man Charlie and listened for a while until it dredged up painful memories and I had to go back into the house.

Memories of *him* too drunk and high on meth and cocaine to keep his hands and feet under control.  Bouncing from one thought to another, wired, frantic to find someone who will pay attention to him.  Playing his electric guitar at 2:30 a.m., full blast and amped up (both him and the electric guitar), after the bars closed and kicked him out.   

He was under the delusion that being drunk and high made him a better guitar player and singer.  (Uh, not.)

He didn't care if I had to get up and work the next morning.  He didn't care if I hadn't had any sleep the night before for the same reason.  He didn't care that even with doors and windows closed, it was loud enough to be heard three houses away, or that we had a next-door neighbor fighting cancer and chemo treatments.  All he cared about was that I was there to record him on his cell phone over and over and over and over and over and over until he got it "just right" so he could share it on Facebook with his family and friends.

His momma and his sisters would all pump up his narcissistic ego.  You sound great, honey!  I just love to hear you play.  I miss the days when we could all play together.  I'm so proud of you, Bubba.

I just don't know how I made it out alive.

Discomfortable ...

Little man Charlie got a 
much-needed haircut.

  I've been in a place of discomfort lately.  Some of it to do with health issues.  Some of it to do with head issues.  I'm too impatient and put too much stress on myself to accomplish dreams in unrealistic time frames. I'm also very frustrated with the physical constraints my health has put on me, and the fact that my "why" questions are not answered as quickly as I would like, no fault of my doctor who is wonderful and has the patience of a saint when it comes to all of my questions.  He agrees that all of my symptoms do not point to just one diagnosis of diabetes, but possibly to something auto-immune related.  Especially since my diabetes diagnosis came right before a bout of pancreatitis, and then almost as quickly, my blood sugar numbers have started to drop since being released from the hospital.   Then there are Reynaud's symptoms.  More testing is being done.   In the meantime, I struggle to stay positive lately, and not get lost in the darkness.

A new flower appearance in the side yard, which I have not yet found a name for.  It has a lot of "looks likes" but nothing I've yet been able to yell "yes! that's it!"  Speaking of the side yard ... it is completely shaded.  Grass won't even grow.  The climbing rose bush I planted before all the trees leafed out seems to be growing, but I'm not sure it will survive because there is only filtered sun [if any] that hits it.  I don't want to have to move it since it is not dying, so will just wait and see if it adjusts.  But any future planting will need to be just spring-blooming bulbs.  One thing that does grow among the leaves from last year's fall ... freakishly large slugs.  I hate slugs.  Especially a 6-inch slug that attached itself to one of my boots the other day, and stayed unseen until I was "pre-occupied" in the bathroom and it decided to slime its way up the cabinet.  Needless to say, the bathroom quickly became unoccupied by both of us, however, I think flushing it was the wrong thing to do.  I can't sit now without doing a "bowl" inspection.

 Several years ago Canada had an ad campaign on television about the elusive House Hippo.   If you've not seen it, you must look for it on YouTube.  I've been looking for mine ever since I saw the ad, and the other day before work I "found" this self-portrait drawn by my House Hippo while she is on vacation.  

 I've since made sure my clouds have silver linings and remember how amazed I was at the beach one night when I saw bioluminescence in the water.  I added some here.  If going to go on vacation, one must be amazed.

Finally, my next huge restoration project, and I may have bitten off more than I can chew on this one.  I've been looking for an old trunk to use in the living room for stashing winter blankets, gloves to wear when my hands get too cold, and extra warm socks.  The price was right on this one, however, I think my plans to just redo the inside was a bit too simplistic.  The original metal that was covering it has completely rusted away in some places, and I'm afraid that any attempt to steel brush it clean will just make it completely disintegrate.  Not to mention that it poses a risk of injury to nosey cats climbing on it and cutting a paw on a raw edge.  I'm thinking now of removing and cleaning the decorative pieces and painting them ~ or replacing them if they are too far gone.  I'll remove all of the rusted metal down to the wood, decoupage the wood with blue gingham or a tiny blue flower print fabric.  The "straps" across the top and sides will be painted yellow.

  The inside is a little worse for wear, but I think some wood glue and TLC will fix it up.  I have some extra fabric from the quilt I used to recover the dining room table chairs and might use that on the inside.  If leaving it open to hide the unsightly exterior was an option, I could do that, but worry that said nosey cat would get killed or worse if the lid fell on her.  But ... I could also remove the lid, still redo the inside, and put cold weather stuff under the shelf, and use the shelf as the coffee table I needed it to be.

  I could put short legs on the lid and then turn it into a CharlieSlashCat bed once I remove the wood dividers.  

  Oh my.  I see now why sleep is such a struggle for me lately.  The brain does not stop taking things one step further.

inconceivable ...

 I am reading Bing's news feed this morning and am just sick to my stomach that [Idaho has passed a bill that allows for the killing of 90% of the state's wolf population.]

  I have kept from sharing any political opinions here, or on any of my previous blogs, because everyone's political beliefs are (I believe) are their own.  Just like religion.

  But this ... this is so wrong.  I get that the state's cattle and sheep ranchers are concerned for their herds and flocks, but the statistics provided in the article do not support such mass slaughter.

  I'm heartbroken.  And will never support any of Idaho's business industries:  tourism, meat, or farm.   I'm calling for a boycott until other non-lethal options are put in place ~ such as relocation of 90% of the packs.