Dove: the only good one, is a cooked one

True to form and the first days of opening season, two out of three Harris males from our family are at the Farm playing war games with small birds.  And may the force be with them.  Nothing says Fall like a freezer full of dove and wood in the wood rack.  Though I gave it a good shot, I didn't manage to burn all of our wood from last year so I am probably set for this year.  Once it cools down a tad more, I'll finish filling up the wood ring by the back door, so I'm just steps from pyromania heaven.  And, truth be told, I'll no doubt do my fire pit on the driveway again, just because I can. 

The great white hunter says no birds yet--we are texting back and forth.  The birds got annihilated on opening day by another Harris and some guests, so they may be laying low.  Wouldn't you??  Dang....I would.  They may also be back in the trees in the back pasture and if they are, they aren't coming out.  They're there for the night, so you might as well find another spot.  It's awful early for that to be the case, so I'm hoping they start flying in soon.  I just texted Fred and said if there aren't any, there's one in the backyard and it made him nuts.  He just texted back that that one is next.  And he isn't kidding.  He and Mr. Pellet gun shoot dove year round but I don't think he lets Sis retrieve dove.  Squirrels, yes, but dove she might eat.  Too delicious to risk.

I have a smothered dove recipe that Fred makes ten times better than I do, or at least that's what I tell him.  Heck...I'm not stupid.  If it gets him cooking, fine by me, but he really does make it better than I do.  He texted he just got one. Looks like the war has begun.

Long Live The King!

Elvis has left the building....

At 8:30 AM this morning, my brother's old man dog, Elvis, caught the train to Dog Town.  Yep.  Another one bites the dust.  My brother claims he named him Elvis because he "ain't nuthin' but a hound dog, cryin' all the time" and that was Christmas Eve almost 17 years ago.  We were all at mom's for Christmas Eve dinner and Elvis was out in the old laundry room at mom's until after dinner, waiting to meet everyone.  Our kids made it a whole nine more months before we had to have a dachshund puppy, too.  And we've been dachshunding ever since.  And so have they.

At lunch last Friday, I had asked my brother if Elvis was doing the baby turtle like Wigman, with his back legs going out from under him, and that's when I got way more information on Elvis than I really needed, but what the hell.  My sister and I both told my brother that when "dogs become incontinent, they are gone" and I think it was just the permission my brother needed to do what he already knew needed to happen.  My family is such a bunch of softies that when it comes to our animals, we are just pathetic..... to be one of our animals is to live in dog heaven--on earth.

Lunch at the Plaza

Lunch yesterday with mom was fun. Because all of the tables in the Dining room are four tops, we were seated in the little private dining room, since it can seat ten.  There were only five of us but I think it gave mom ideas of how she could have another group for lunch in the future.  Another plus was it's fully enclosed, so mom could hear better in there, than in the larger dining room filled with other residents and their visitors.
It's really heart warming to see how the staff remembers the residents particulars.  Mom likes a glass of milk with her lunch, and sherbet--any sherbet--for dessert.  She gets a real kick out of them remembering and bringing her her favorite stuff, without even having to ask.  Occasionally, she'll throw them a curve ball but for the most part, she's the same old, same old, every day.  It's also a hoot now to hear her refer to other residents as her friends--thank the good Lord in heaven for that.  When she first moved in back in April, everyone was "old" and "uses a walker", and we weren't quite sure how she was going to settle in to this deal.  Case closed.  She loves it and that is no small or minor MIRACLE. 

The other day in the mail I got a letter from the Plaza asking if mom would like to have her flu shot (swine, and what ever the flu du jour is for this year) right there at the Plaza.  I asked her and we both said "Oh, hell, yes", and I turned in the paperwork today.  I thought she might have wanted to have it at her doctor's office but nooooooo.  She wanted to have it right there--- with all her buddies. Yee haw. 

There was one spot of news yesterday that was distressing to me.  It seems the man I had hand picked to be mom's boyfriend, because he's adorable and has a precious male Schnauzer that lives with him, is moving.  And, mom said, he has a girlfriend.  Drat.

FEAR.....

Fear.  That deep down feeling of terror that things are somehow NOT going to be OK and that it's all over.  I was strolling down memory lane last night realizing all the stuff I'd been through in the last three years--a lot of it I can't share here but you can just take my word for it--it's been one hell of a ride.  An acronym I learned for FEAR--False or Future  Events Appearing Real has helped a lot to bring me back to this planet vs way out there in Scared As Hell Land.  Some of the stuff was real as it gets, and there's no debating that, but the rest of the stuff I spun way out there into tomorrow-land, never actually happened. But the feelings were there--- so I got scared as hell anyway.  Feelings aren't facts (and I know that intellectually) but in my head, good luck selling that idea when I'm really afraid.

I've decided that FEAR is just my default setting.  I'm human and I'm going to get scared, regardless.  It's what I do with that fear that's important.  Denial is one option but that just doesn't work for me--my "Deniar" must be broken or functioning at such a low level that I just don't get any relief from using it.  Punt that.  So that usually sends me to my time worn tools of journaling, talking with someone else who isn't involved so they can point out reality when I can't see it for the trees, and always, prayer.  In fact, prayer is the first one I use and not just the foxhole kind either.  I like to stay close to God just in case I need Him (which is everyday, all day) --that way He remembers me and I don't have to re-introduce myself.  Beyond that, being patient and giving time, time, is helpful, but only if you are patient, and I'm not, so that's another steep hill for me to climb as well. 

Sometimes just sitting down and making a list of all of the stuff God's already gotten me through and reading it out loud to myself, will put things back into perspective.  By the time I finish reading the list out loud, I'm usually totally reassured that God's got all of it and I can quit trying to do His job-- and just LET HIM DO IT.
Today I know, there is a God and it's NOT me.

P. S. There is another acronym for FEAR:      F***  Everything  And  Run -----just in case you'd rather.

Mr. Mertz makes a funny

Somebody around our house thinks he is just hilarious.  Woo hoo.  Big funny, Mr.Mertz.  He sent me this with an ad for Pole Dancing classes --3 classes for $35.  And, he said he'd spring for the $35.  Ha...Ha...Ha.  If I looked like her, I'd take the damn classes.  Whadaya think the chances are that I could hoist myself upside down, on a pole, in the first place?  And most importantly, I don't have long hair.

You better sit down.....

Just when I thought I'd almost seen it all, I got an email yesterday that blew my scrubs off.  A lawsuit my siblings and I have been involved in and have been waiting for a ruling on, we found out was actually decided and signed off on---in JUNE--but neither side was ever notified by the judge or the court.  We won, thankfully, but here's the kicker: some other people are involved in an almost identical suit, and their attorneys and ours, were all in court MONDAY.  Yeah.  Of this week.  And the judge didn't remember he'd already heard, and ruled, on our half, and we didn't know he had either. And the meter was running for both sets of our attorneys.  If they are almost identical, wouldn't you think he'd have ruled on the other half ?  Hello....anything sound familiar?  It's the same case--just different people--even the lawsuit name is the same. 

Wanna know how we found out we'd won?  Our attorney happened to log on to this new website for attorneys to be able to check the status of cases that are pending a judge's decision, and there was our suit.  He signed our order on June 26, 2010.  Seriously.  I am not kidding.  Now the attorneys for the identical suit are trying to figure out how to tell the judge he FUBAR -ed, without embarrassing him.  Unbelievable, no???  They don't want to totally piss him off since we want him to nail the side that brought the suit, and make them cover our attorney fees.  I wish I could tell you I made all of this up but I don't have that active an imagination.  If I did, I'd write for a Soap Opera.  Oh....that's right...this is one.