The other day my son and I were watching the movie 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford '  with Brad Pitt [which is about an hour too long if anyone is interested]. While we were watching this very long drawn out version of events leading up to his death I figured I'd throw in a little personal history and mentioned that my great-grandmother had known Jesse James mother. He looked almost intrigued. I went in search of pictures. 

This is not an easy task around here. Things are in boxes and are not terribly organized. We are not a big photo taking family to begin with, either, so throw all of that together and, well this is what I came up with. And it wouldn't even had amounted to this if the movie hadn't been so interminable__

My great-grandmother Rosa is the first one standing on the back left. All the ladies in the photo are relatives__mostly sisters-in-law. 

My great aunt Vi is standing next to her. She is the one who, when in her nineties had gone blind but continued to drive a car with the help of her sister, Mable [who never learned to drive but would tell her where to go] She is seated in front of the table. One of the scariest experiences of my young life was going to the store with those two in Hastings, Nebraska.

While I was rummaging around I found some other pictures. None of the James family...but some of mine so I thought I'd post them. I don't usually. Matt doesn't approve of putting personal pics on the net but I figure these are old enough that it won't matter.

Rosa's son, my grandfather, Jarvis and my favorite person in the world when I was a kid. These were taken in 1917 when he was 17 years old and in the USMC.

Me hanging with the boys at Lake Arrowhead in the 60's.

My brother and me with our grandparents in the 70's

Me getting caught in a rainstorm during a hike a few years back.

My Aunt Betty

There are two cats in residence here: Boo, who came to stay after Matt's grandmother passed [she was her cat]

 and Sari.

Boo is special. Oh, I know, all cats are special but Boo is special in the way you describe someone who has special needs...Matt says he's going to get her a helmet. She is, in a phrase, not too bright. And as far as motivation goes? Zip. She has a place all staked out on top of the dog's crate and that is where she stays unless she journeys down to the basement where her cat-box is__oh, and to go on safari by walking the duct-work and make it sound like a thunderstorm is brewing in the basement rafters. This is usually at 3 am.  Anyway, while she camps on the dog crate she needs a scratching post [even those challenged in the brain pan need one] so she was using the wall. I tried many different things on the wall but the only thing she would accept instead was a piece of cardboard. Ok. Simple enough. It's not pretty but this house is not house beautiful with all the constant work going on so no big deal. A couple of days ago I replaced, or rather covered the current shredded cardboard with an empty cereal box. Corn Pops. Classy. I made a big deal about how she was getting Pop Art for her wall. I got a vacant stare from her.
Sari, the tortoiseshell terror, on the other hand was not happy about it. She feels that all things in this house are hers__well, except Boo who she would gladly dispatch if she thought she could get away with it. She went on a minor Genghis rampage to show her displeasure and tore up the office in revolt.
Meanwhile, Boo discovered her pop art has a slightly more slickery surface to it than the old cardboard and her claws just slide right off.  This has caused some consternation. She scratches__pauses__meows__scratches__well, you get the picture.

Sari finds this fascinating.  As does the beagle. They watch it as theatre. Cat Kabuki.

We are awaiting the arrival of my yoga mat from Amazon for a cardboard transplant.

Wouldn't it be interesting if:

Michelle Obama ran for president next time out?  Hillary Clinton is the presumed candidate for the next election but after her health scare there is some debate [and let's face it, the opposing party will use it with all the delicacy of a claw-hammer at a crab dinner] to deny her the opportunity.

Congress realized they might be in for some restructuring by the American voters and decided to get to work?

We taxed goods and services from other countries at a slightly higher rate than those from our own so that we might have some incentive to actually use those goods and services that are home-grown, there-by providing a two-fold benefit; one in a tax increase for broad-spectrum projects and the other to the in-country businesses?

They would put exercise cars on public transportation. A couple of cars of nothing but exer-bikes could conceivably be hooked up to auxiliary batteries to run the lights on the train, maybe?

We started having Town Hall Meetings here on the internet for local, state, and national...heck, maybe even international forums that picked one issue a month that would be discussed openly [provider TBA]. I realize this last suggestion might crash a server so it might require some modifications but really what I guess I'm proposing is not A discussion board but The discussion board. Some place everyone can go and say what they will about the subject proposed at that time. It could be called The Public Mind.

They [GM] have come out with a new Corvette.

Some think it lacks...Corvetteness. There is some talk that it has a Camaro rear end. Others think it is high style.

 Personally, I think it looks a lot like the old Datsun 280 ZX.

Matt thinks it looks like the Dodge Viper

I don't think it looks like a Corvette. But what do I know?

It's Indian Spring. Is there such a thing? Maybe Caucasian Spring. Or African Spring. Or Arab Spring. Or Oriental Spring. I don't know. Whatever it is, it's out of season.

It's in the 60's today. That's 30 dgs. warmer than normal. Don't get me wrong. It's nice not to have to burn so much fuel to keep the house warm. And I suppose it's even ok seeing [some] of the folks in town in their shorts, but the bugs I can do w/o. Yes, those are a pest. The stink bugs particularly.

I have the stink bug dungeon in a large coffee can already in use. That isn't normally around until May. *sigh*

My neighbor across the street has started a new relationship. This apparently is interfering in his hobby of roaring around his property on his dirt bike as I've not seen or heard him doing so since she moved in. In what was a move of frustration on his part [at this I am only guessing] he went out and tore the speed limit sign off the tree by the road at the edge of his property and stomped back toward his house early this morning. Later today I found the sign in my culvert. Nice. I give the relationship about 3 to 6 mos. , but maybe I'll be wrong and she'll get a dirt bike, too. I'm leaving the sign in the culvert. If it rains and flows on the wash down to the corner and blocks the outflow under the road it will back up and flood his front yard. Yes. I can be evil that way.

My generally nice live and let live attitude is beginning to fray a bit around the edges these days. I'm becoming more entrenched in the land of grumpy. Actually I am turning into a roaring bitch, if the truth be known and the only one I feel for is my son because although he's rarely the recipient of this transformation he does have the dubious benefit of hearing much of the tirade accompanying it. Why am I harridaning so?  Partly because I'm feeling fed up with so many things that I burst with it and then there is the med change. The doc warned me there might be a slight alteration in mood. ahahahaha. 'Like what?' 'You may find yourself slightly more terse than usual.'  Again__ahahahahaha.

Anyway. I'm thinking I should apply for a job as a termagant__one to work on a professional level. A professional mouth weapon of a certain age that can be pointed and fired at a specific target. Applications to AARP__worthy green groups__defense groups for victims especially children and animals. Yep, point and shoot. The lethal tongue.

Houston...

NASA and all attached satellites, we have a problem.


This evening, in an attempt at regaining lost beauty and elegance [or possibly merely misplaced] I decided at the tender hour of midnight to do SPA. Yes, do SPA. It is it's own event...especially if you haven't perpetrated it upon yourself for as long as it's not been done to or upon me. Why would I do this? Because I was already doing laundry and the television has entered the dead zone and I was BORED.
and
I read a recipe for a coffee-ground and sugar scrub I thought might be entertaining.
so
In the spirit of multitasking I made coffee, you know for the grounds, and drank some because waste not/want not__etc., and we were off to the races.
oh
And I decided to mix a couple of other things in with the grounds and sugar...like coconut oil; you know for a moisturizer and a couple of drops of herbal this and that to help with my skin. Anyway, I was playing chemist by the time the shower was ready but everything looked ready and I got the cloth and the mesh stopper that was recommended to keep the drain from backing up and, again, off we [figuratively] went.
then
The drain started to back up. Well, yes, I know all I had to do was remove the mesh but I was covered in grounds and wasn't finished SPA-ING yet and there were more grounds, well, grounding and so I kept spa-ing. And the tub kept filling. It was around this time, say 1 am, that I began to realize there might be a slight problem. Like the fact that Matt was going to be up in a couple of hours and need the bathroom to get ready for work and I needed to get finished spa-ing and clear the tub. That's when I really took a good look at the amount of clearing that was going to have to be done.
joy
I got out of the tub and in my new skin started bailing like a fishwife on holiday.
fun
It was then a quarter to 2 in the morning. I was hot, sweaty and no longer spa-d.
but

I do glow.

From my home to yours~

Chrysanthemum:
Excellent when presented as a gift to someone, the Chrysanthemum signifies a life of ease. Buddhists are fond of using this flower as offerings on alters. Symbolic of powerful Yang energy, this flower is an attractant of good luck in the home.