the box box

Don't ask me what I was thinking ya'll, but once upon a time I collected boxes.  Each of them was unique, unless they came in a nest which they tend to do, especially at the dollar store..  Over the years kids drag them over to somebody's house and the dog chews one up.  Nothing is forever, least of all collectibles.  I treasure every single piece of post WWII fabric and every stick of antique furniture because they are relics of my upbringing, little pieces of memory that provide comfort.  Add a candle to it and you've got atmosphere!

It was Monday, all day long at the sawmill.  The sun wasn't even up when I pulled up next to the rail and jumped out of dragged my old tired ass out of the trusty Camry with two hubcaps, two almost flat tires and never more than a quarter tank of gas.  I had a good weekend so it took until 2PM for me to wear out.  It's amazing what restful sleep will do for a body.

Most of the boxes are in piles now, waiting to be put into another box until they get to wherever they end up.  At this point in time, I don't have a clue.  But I'm sure that Big Ernie does.

Ya'll say your prayers and call your momma.

^j^

do no harm

Working in the field of healthcare has given me a keen awareness of who's in it for the money and who really enjoys "helping people."  Obviously, I'm not in it for the money because I never have any.  What is amazing to me is how far the professional fee write off thing will go with people that you know and respect at times, and at other times it's all about keeping the big fat boat floatin'.   There was this one guy, in particular, whose daughters went to church with BG.  He did some nerve studies in his "mobile lab"  to prove that I had carpal tunnel syndrome so that the surgeon could fix it.  That's how insurance rolls, ya know.

Anywho....I was still on basic then because it's all I could afford and the deductible was a thousand bucks so guess who got screwed.  Umm...I'll give you a hint.  It wasn't him.  I sent this man a personal letter asking for some forgiveness seeing as how times were hard and all that.  My reply was a phone call from a particularly nasty collection agency whose agent told me "Look....lady.  I'm a bill collector.  It ain't my job to be nice."  That went auto draft quickly.  Sheesh.  I survived a Chapter 7 bankruptcy following the divorce and remarriage.  That was back in the day when credit was king and the cards mounted up over time.  As did the car payments and what not.  And the price of beans.  Coming back from that is akin to digging a hole to China with a tablespoon started in the side yard like BG and Mary did that day long ago at the age of eight.  That wasn't very long after she pinned her cousin to the ground on in the yard and I had to break it up.  

The difference now is that many provider practices are owned corporately and ya'll know they don't play when it comes to money.  I'm just sayin'.  My company will write off deductibles for me if I require treatment there, but in the doc's offices you're on your own with insurance that is deducted by payroll.  And now you tell me that won't be tax free anymore?  Oh, please.  Let's all go apeshit crazy and take our country back from big business and support ourselves instead of the rest of the freakin' world.  Homeland security?  Does that phrase ring a bell???

Yep. I'm definitely in a rambling mood.  Watch out world ^j^

holy war

I haven't been on a soapbox in a long time....well since Dubya left the big house.  It was in pretty bad shape then  and the transition to Obamaland hasn't been a piece of cake either.  But my thoughts today have nothing at all to do with party lines or loyalties.  I let go of that piece of the dream after the rally...you go boys!  The whole mess is simple or as my Daddy says: " It has always been thus and so."  If you look back through your bible or koran or whatever you choose for worship there is surely to goodness something to do with being nice to others instead of persecuting them for their religious beliefs or sexual preference.  What was that cute little book about lettin' go of the small stuff?  

It is indeed biblical the way I see the tribes railing at each other today insisting that each and their allies and allies grandmamas are W.R.O.N.G  Sheesh.  I believe that Big Ernie addressed that kind of stuff back in the first part of the good book when he got mad after people ignored the ten big ones.  I'm sure it still totally pisses him off, so I try to be good on the basics.  The rest is just details.  I will never understand how we have to make it all complicated and something to kill each other over.  Our society AND others have raised a generation of people who will never know the Wally and Beaver and Andy Griffith type of existence that I was raised in.  Not that it was all gooey goodness of figuring out who you are as a woman, an american and a hippie in a world where you're expected to be a "nice girl."  Ya'll all know how that one turned out.

Personally, I don't see why anybody would not want to get along and work together toward some kind of common goal, preferably at a local level where the community's needs are met by locals who have nothing to gain but the satisfaction of sharing with their neighbors.  It may not bring world peace, but it will surely bring a whole hell of a lot of peace to a few lucky neighborhoods.  I grew up in one  just like that and so did my daughter.   I do not believe in racial and ethnic parity because in my mind that takes away who I am as a person rather than a percentage of the total workforce.  No apologies...that's my view as a woman who has supposedly gotten some benefit from the ERA and the tail end of prosperity in our country.  The people cannot speak because their elected representatives make it hard to choose between the urgent pleading of an unemployed worker and dinner with a lobbyist.  In case you've never thought about it...that's YOUR money they're blowing on entitlements.  Money that they use all year long interest free.

I am one pissed off American right now because I remember the good times and I want them back in some form or fashion for my grandchildren.  I suppose that is what we do as elders......keep the stories alive to be passed down through the years.  Lordy...I sound like my mama.  And that ain't a bad thing, by any means.

^j^

disability

For some unknown reason, both Blogger and Google decided to kick me off and make me figure out how to get back in.  As my old friend Risible Girl would say "meh".  Their instructions for password recovery stated that it they note suspicious activity the account is disabled.  All I can figure is that some smartass in Nigeria was trying to hijack my many daily ramblings and make a fortune off of my still unwritten book.  In case ya'll didn't know, Nigeria is a hotbed of people with nothing else to do but sit around on PCs and aggravate the rest of the world.  Been there done that with Prince Fred.  Anybody remember THAT story????

My Monday off was a busy one beginning with a trip to the doctor with both parents.  Mama's stitches aren't healed well enough yet to take out, so there's another trip on Friday.  Plus one next week to the gastro buy.  Getting old is not for sissies, I'm just saying.  After some errand running, I cooked for my brother's poker club and had my first experience with turnip greens.  Shewwwweeee!  That is my Christmas gift to him every year and I was first set to serve them on the day the hundred year flood hit back in May.  That would be May 4th, to be exact.  I will never forget that day as long as I live.  South Dyersburg still looks like a ghost town.

And so now....I must go find my missing phone.  If ya'll have my number, call me a few times :)

colors galore

I was wrong when I thought that the leaves here had peaked last week.  Pecan Lane is still awash with fall colors basking in the cool windy sunshine of today.  A hard freeze is predicted for tonight, which will make allergy sufferers like myself breathe a lot easier.  The air is crisp and clean....something that I only dreamed of back in the sultry days of July.  Today is my one and only official play day with a weekend full of sawmill ahead.  All I can say is I hope ya'll got a flu shot.  'Tis the season and it's not too late!

Sam and Oscar have taken up with each other like true brothers and play endlessly, their nails clicking on the laminate as they scuffle around seeing who's the alpha for a day.  Don't tell anybody, but I saw the pecan guy down the road raiding my favorite trees and he was BENDING over at the waist which resulted in a 911 call last week.  I didn't have the heart to ask him to use that picker upper thing.  Mama's head is much better after a visit to the beauty shop to get the blood out of her hair.  She does look a little like somebody hit her in the face with a baseball bat though :(  I'm glad it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks.  The 14 stitches will come out on Monday when she visits her regular doc.

I gave up on raking leaves in the fall many moons ago because the winds up on this hill usually take care of it for me.  Yesterday afternoon I went over to Gigi's newly acquired property to help her get it in shape for rental.  She picked the perfect job for me.....raking leaves in the small fenced in back yard.  Neither she nor her son had noticed that there's a poison ivy vine as fat as a snake crawling upward into the biggest tree on the fence.  I did what I could with it, but that's gonna take a chainsaw to fix that little problem.  My sista, as I call her, is a master at finding good properties with potential and adding her magic decorative touch to them.  I've been sorting through and doing a little renovation myself since BG moved out leaving me with her room to use as a den.

The squeaky dryer will buzz any second now.  Ya'll give somebody a hug like you mean it. Best therapy in the world ^j^

hump day friday

I get to sleep in for the next two days in a row and I just can't put into words how very delicious that sounds right now..  After all, I'm a senior citizen now, ya know?   Too bad I can't retire yet.  Thanks to wasteful government spending and bad management that will be at age 67 or when I drop dead on the ergonomic mats earning rent money.  Whichever comes first.  My little general Yankee friend and I were discussing election results today at the sawmill with an emphasis on the huge GOP victory party up there in the House.  We both agreed that it didn't matter WHO is president right now, even if if was Jesus..the people will flip flop according to what's going on with the economy and whatnot.  Healthcare is a biggie. Insurance premiums went up ( again!) and there still seems to be less benefit money available for preventive medicine than for big bucks medical specialists and high tech testing.  Personally, I believe that our country could benefit to a less top heavy sort of federal government with a return of responsibility to the individual states to care for their population.  The cost of healthcare delivery in the south is wayyyyyyyyy up there due to the high poverty level.  Poverty = unhealthy eating habits and bad karma on the home front.  The fed now totes most of the note for that, without regard for all those people who live in less populated states.  Maybe that's what the whole Civil War was about, huh?????

It was a humbling experience, once again, to sit at my mother's side in fast track and observe her treatment at the hands of my co-workers.  I had never met either of them, but they got that head wound stitched and moved us out of there in two hours, just in time for the news with daddy.  BG tag teamed with me on that one, and delivered my entries for the local photo contest to the chamber office while I watched the suturing.  I wondered, after the fact, if everyone who comes in there feels that comfort level.  I reckon that's what we work toward as a team.

Our local paper puts out a quarterly women's magazine, each time with a different theme.  They ask for volunteers to tell their stories and the bucket list one caught my eye thanks to our company PR gal.  A very kind and insightful reporter took some pics and talked with us for awhile and the work was absolutely what I need to feel right now.....a huge group hug for me, my momma and my babygirl.  BG called me this afternoon to tell me that Gail and Oprah were camping out.  What .A. Hoot!

"Ya'll be careful out there."  Hill Street Blues

crisis mode

It's amazing to me how quickly your sense of time changes when there's an emergency in the works. I've called 911 twice in a week, once for the pecan man who fell over picking up nuts and today for my mother who just umm...fell over and busted her head open.  Daddy called me and said I'd better come on because "mama fell."  When I got there she was still on the floor and Ms. Faye, lord rest her soul, was cleaning the blood off the carpet.  It's been a little over two years since the last ambulance run there, when she fell and broke her arm on Easter Sunday trying to cook supper.  There is nothing more emotionally painful than watching a parent get battered and bruised just by trying to keep on keepin' on.  She feels terribly sad because she can't do the things that she used to love, like reading and watching TV.  I can't imagine losing my sight so it's hard for me to relate.  Mostly I just try to get her to verbalize what the realities are so that we can identify what can be changed and what can't.  Macular degeneration is on the "can't fix" list.  So is the frontotemporal dementia that daddy has.
It just doesn't seem right that you work hard all your life and that's what old age hands you to deal with.

Like much of the nation, I was mesmerized by the rally on Saturday, loving every minute of the comic and musical relief that was markedly non-partisan and inclusive up to its' ass.  But then again, that's how I roll.  I heard one conservative complain online something to the effect that America is stupid to listen to a comic and a clown stand up there in Washington telling us how to think and feel.  Hmm.  Isn't that what they've ALWAYS done up in that neck of the woods???  I cried when the Four Troops sang the national anthem.  And I laughed myself silly with every jab that Stewart and Colbert threw at each other because it is all so very true.  The country that I know and love has finally grown a pair and said heck no to partisan politics.  I did NOT vote in the election, nor will I because I feel that the choices put on those ballots, sponsored by two equally greedy parties, are not what I believe in.  To hell with 'em. And the horses they rode in on.

And for the record?  I vote for peace, love and rock'n'roll.