As expected, the car wouldn’t turn over.   A fellow Villager was out for her walk, she’s always smiling and, I learned later in the evening, she RIDES A HARLEY!   That’s probably why she’s always smiling.  ANYWAY, when I couldn’t get the hood up on the Park Avenue (is that the kind of car??) to try to jump the battery of the ’stang, my new friend went to get her husband to help.  By the time they returned, I had the hood open, but wasn’t sure about where to connect the cables (directions were worn and another neighbor was recommending something OTHER than what the directions indicated).   Between the three of us, we got the car running and then I was invited to bring the ’stang over to their house where her husband completely “restored” my battery cable connections which were less than conducive to maintaining a charge when the OWNER leaves the car lights on…  Laurie turned on the Harley and let the engine roar and we both were in heaven…she patted the bike lovingly before she powered it off.   They sent me on my way with a battery charger that can be used anywhere (they charged it for me) and off I went.

Right now, I’m in a beautiful home of friends of my sister (now my friends as well), and I’ll be housesitting for the next two weeks.  Swimming pool, lakeside view and a far infrared sauna awaits!!  And, taking care of a doberman, as well as a min-pin - the beloved children of the owner of the house!  As well as ZULU, the grey parrot who yells “Rafiah” whenever he wants attention.

Life is good.

It’s normal.  Sort of.   Can start as early as 30, as heart ages.

Mine is “frequent” and there is a prescription for it, but it lowers blood pressure.

Web searches show magnesium and possible CoQ10 as “fixes”.

I’m scheduled for a cardiologist (JUST to ease my concerns on 5/30 - but doctor (internist) is not worried at all).  Blood work ALL normal, slightly low iron count, but I just gave blood 2-3 weeks ago.  Not thyroid, not sugar, not electrolytes…just normal aging heart.

YIPPEE.

I think.

I never did find who chose the seating plan, and I’ll bet that SINCE 2010 when this actually occurred, whoever does the seating will definitely take the “mood” of the country into consideration and give additional respect to the extended family, because this is what I found…

http://blog.seattlepi.com/militarywire/2010/12/14/exposed-medal-of-honor-giuntas-family-forced-to-third-row-for-ceremony/

If the above article (link)  says that actual footage does show that his parents were sitting in the front row, which article/video is correct?

Spin Doctors.  There’s a movie about it (wag the dog?) and a rock group with the same name.

WHAT IS TRUE?  And what is supposed, made up, meant to cause conflict and disrespect of all of us?

I mean, how do we know what is true, when ANYONE can blog, misrepresent and/or proliferate whatever they want us to believe in this world today??

AN ASIDE (I don’t want to include the actual link): In the link that came with the email I was sent, I had to reflect…We don’t even know if the “they just want a body” is true or factual.  Does the WHOLE Islamic race “just want a body”?  The way this “fact” is depicted in the link I was sent (some tv or radio personality expounding on yet, another, _fill in the blank Presidential_ “blunder”), it appears that  it is the entire race.  I doubt that is the case, but if I were to decide to get up on my high horse and ride with a banner blasted the entire race, it would be as a result of believing this person’s YouTube video.  How sad.

Unfortunately, there are MANY ‘very sad partS’ to the email I received, not only from the video link I took the time to watch, but it’s that way with many of the email and stuff that is online today. 

Still looking for the person who decided who sat where back in November of 2010, I also checked Snopes.  Nothing there about the third row uproar, but I did find that President Obama didn’t salute the medal winner, and surprise, surprise, I found that Johnson and Nixon didn’t salute either when they awarded living recipients.   Further, I learned that it’s not a requirement to salute, but you can bet many people forwarded the email blasting the current President because he didn’t salute.

Sigh.

This kind of “reporting” will continue for as long as there are individuals who feel strongly enough for one side or the other.  Instead of praying for a better world, and starting the healing with the person ‘throwing the stone’, we just keep stirring up the discord pot and turning up the heat.

Even sadder…if it weren’t Obama in the White House, these SAME KIND OF EMAIL would be sent from those on the “other side” regarding whoever is unfortunate enough to be in his shoes.  It’s just the way HUMANS are, whether we “just want a body” or we just want to slam the person from the other political party.

What was I thinkin?

I’ve just read some of the “jokes” and “this is scary” emails and I have to say, I’m not laughing and I am a bit scared.  Making fun of those who have deformities isn’t funny, not to me anyway.  And, worrying about when the Muslims are going to take over the world - as if I don’t have enough to worry about when looking at the 23 year old car I’m driving or my checking account after paying car insurance, health insurance and for the recent repairs for the 23 year old car, not to mention the upcoming repairs of the 23 year old car.  ELLEN!!!  Where is my car???

Sigh.

Ok, there is a commercial about a plot to take over the world, Zulu I think it is, where people will spend so much time watching movies and reruns and playing games (?)…now that’s more than scary…and NOT UNLIKE sitting in front of this PC for hours reading jokes and scary information or watching the hundreds and hundreds of “funny” videos.  A friend of mine has meaningful tasks to accomplish, but instead, FARMING takes precedence…on FACEBOOK mind you.  And people HELP with the crops and the lack of water and with the need for an extra sheep.  WHO HAS TIME TO FARM ON FACEBOOK??  Apparently a lot of people.

Someone recently paid some absurd amount of money for a PENNY.  Granted, it was a VERY OLD PENNY, but, there are people starving in India.  And in Europe, Asia, and HERE IN AMERICA too.  Let’s spend an absurd amount of money for a penny, what do you say??

I’d like to restore my 23 year old vehicle.  WHY?  How many people could be fed with the money I would pour down the drain to restore my CLASSIC soon to be 25 year old vehicle?  I mean, really.

Today a cardinal (male) drank water from a plastic plant liner I’ve set outside the window where I work.  Prior to today, only mockingbirds and a couple of doves have visited my little make shift “fountain”, but today, a cardinal.  My sister and I think of my Dad when we see a cardinal.  Like, it’s Dad come to visit and say Hi…via a fly by.  I saw Dad today.  And, I read a  White Bison email today which said that before we die, we see loved ones who come to help us cross over.  Am I about to cross over?

I called the doctor yesterday to make an appointment because I’ve been experiencing, not pain, but an unsettling “something’s wrong under the hood” kind of feeling.  Like when you know your car needs to go in for some maintenance.  While I was having the EKG, there was no indication of a problem, but thankfully (?????), when the doctor walked in and while I was still hooked up to the machine, the UH-OH feeling happened again and she was able to see that I was experiencing an “extra” heartbeat.  Shortly thereafter I was hooked up to the 24 hour monitor and instructed to “press this button” every time you experience an abnormality.   The thing is, I’ve let this go on for so long, I’ve become oblivious to how often something flutters, or sputters or constricts…and so for the first 30 minutes or so, I was pressing the button every minute or two.  A call to the doctor’s office, left me none the wiser, “yes, just keep pressing the button” I was instructed.   In addition to pressing the button, I’m to write down the time, what I was doing (activity) and symptoms.  I told them there wasn’t enough columns if I were to press the button EVERY time…so they said, you can use additional paper.  I’m just writing a time and condensing the number of occurrences into the activity column and moving forward.   Oh, and I waxed my car until I was wetter than if I had taken the disallowed shower!

The car looks great by the way!

The Snail.  I heard this the other day on the TV which was in an adjoining room while I was at work.  I only heard the last part of it, so I had made up my own first part.  I wanted to mention it now, so I went to Google, typed in “snail throw three years” and I FOUND IT (my version is better by the way!!).  Here it the Google’d version ==>

One day a man was sitting on his sofa at home when he heard a knock at the door. He got up to see who it was but when he opened the door no one was there. Just as he was about to sit down he heard the knock again but when he got there again, there was no one at the door.  He scratched his head, looked around for a second and looked down to see a tiny snail on the porch. He picked up the snail, threw it into a field across the street and headed back inside to watch television again.

Three Years Later - The same man is sitting on his sofa watching TV and hears a knock at the door. He gets up and goes to see who’s there and there is no one. He looks around for a second and just as he is about to close the door, he looks down and sees the snail who looks back up and says “What the Hell was that all about!!?”.

source: http://www.jokebuddha.com/Snail#ixzz1txSo8700

I’ve been said to be “tenacious” - I just won’t let things go.  I found this snail joke/story to be very humorous and I told it many times that first day, I’m still telling it.  And, it only took me telling it one or two times when I realized how much like the snail I am.  I mean, three years later - to still be mulling over some perceived (or real) threat or injustice or just a simple comment…yup.  I AM THE SNAIL.  Not the Walrus, but the Snail.

$100 to watch the play, The Lion King, live at the Bob Carr theater on Sunday.  $100.  I’ve been to two plays (that I can remember, one was “Arms too short to box with God” and the other was “Phantom of the Opera”) in my life…and I enjoyed them both (even though I just had to do a Google search of “famous plays boat mask kidnap” to REMEMBER the name of Phantom…sigh).  Frivolous?  I guess so.  But, LIFE IS SHORT and … I guess that’s why I ate a bowl of really good Kozy Shack rice pudding after 9PM tonight…

If someone thinks the “end is near” and they do things they normally wouldn’t do, like eat 3 sinfully delicious biscuits at Red Lobster - in one sitting, followed by a BOWL, not a cup or a single serving, but a BOWL of Kozy Shack rice pudding…if a heart attack DOES occur, was it the piling on of stuff that you normally don’t eat that did you in, or were you on your way out anyway??  I guess the extra pounds around the waist and/or the thighs, not to mention the clogged arteries might be considered worth it IF you clutch your chest in the next day or two.  But, if you are just sleep deprived and over anxious, well…a couple of weeks at the gym, with your healthy heart, will definitely be in order!

Speaking of sleep deprived, I’m tired.  And, the sugar rush is fading…perhaps some light reading (Making a Change For Good, by Cheri Huber) is in order.  Because it’s pretty hard to MAKE A CHANGE at all if you DON’T MAKE TIME to read the book.

Sigh.

They say that these bugs come from the bottom of the dried (drying up) lakes in the area, perhaps that’s why they smell like dead fish when their little corpses are rotting?   Anyway, because of the lack of water, and because my dad loved birds and so do I, I decided to put a make-shift bird bath outside my office window…under a tree so that the lawn maintenance people won’t run over it with their tractor mowers.   An 8×8 glass baking pan has been the bathing place of at least 3 birds, so far.  And these birds, they TAKE TURNS, they WAIT their turn.  It was really touching to see how polite they are.

One Blue Jay took his/her time and was completely soaked by the time it (not sure what it was) ran off across the lawn.

I had the idea when I saw a Mockingbird, and an Eastern Bluebird as well as a Cardinal outside my window eating, what I suspect are, blind mosquitoes.   Seems they (bugs) are everywhere, not just round the light fixtures and inside the walls and ceilings of many homes in the area.  I figured with the lack of rain/water, it might be some relieve to the birds to have a fresh source.

I’m waiting to see if the location of my little bathing area is shared with other wildlife, how DO they notify the others, or is it just the luck of the draw who happens to come upon the “sweet spot” outside my window?

I love writing.  And I love the lessons from the living things just outside of my reach…

Now, if Ellen would decide to give me a car!  

As I’m finishing this post, a lizard is making his/her way to the 8×8 Pyrex swimming pond…while the birds couldn’t see me here behind the glass windows, the little guy has me in sight from beneath the open window…will he/she have enough resolve to “just do it” and forsaking all safety and wisdom, check out the clear, nearly fresh, water?

I don’t know if I have enough time to sit here to see!

Then, I noticed a couple of blooms, apparently where there was no trimming, but when first noticed, it just seemed that some of the blossoms had RUSHED to be first, to the viewer (me), it appeared that perhaps the first blossoms were trying to beat the rest of the blooms.  I made a judgement, it’s what I do, that in rushing to be first, these blooms will “miss out” on the full, spectacular, show that I’ve now noticed is about to become a reality.

There are the beginnings of what will be a massive outburst of color in the near future, or what I BELIEVE will be a massive outburst.  I’m no horticulturalist, so I have NO idea what the tree might or might not do, just thought about how I sometimes rush and rush and rush, perhaps to be first, perhaps to just “do it”, or for whatever reason…I have a tendency to rush.   How many spectacular displays am I missing by not waiting for the opportune moment to go with the flow and bloom when everything else around me is blooming?  Having already “been there, done that”, am I callous and bored with the fullness of the “team effort”?

In these days of 3G and 4G networks where the news is “old” before most people even have a chance to hear it the first time, does the Bottle Brush tree offer any lessons to anyone else?   Or just to me?

NOTE:  the bottle brush bush DID NOT follow the line of this post…some blossoms bloomed, some didn’t…and the beautiful “unfolding” never occurred.  So, YOU GO! individual bloom when you want to blossoms!!

Cautiously.