The BEST Medicine!

The best cure for the blues is the love of family and friends. I consider Wandering Coyote to be both. About a week ago I received this lovely postcard of WC's hometown, complete with a message of cheer from her "neck of the woods". That card made my week! The postcard will be hanging on my fridge for the next few months. Then it will join the rest of my postcard collection. You didn't know I collected postcards, did you WC?

I'm so sorry that you didn't receive the email I sent you the day the card arrived. I don't know if Hotmail or my intermittent internet service is to blame. I should've realized the message didn't go through when I didn't hear back from you. I feel like a heel! THANK YOU soooo much for brightening my day and for being such a wonderful friend and "extra daughter"!

Accentuate the Positive?

Remember that old Bing Crosby song?

My son recently told me that I have to stop concentrating on all the bad things that have happened this year. I thought that's what I've been doing. Isn't that what my last post was about?

When I last posted, I didn't even mention that I had sprained my ankle on July 27th. I was actually thankful that I didn't miss any work. How's that for "accentuating the positive"?

Ever since the episode with my parents in Duluth, we've been doing a lot of soul-searching to try to get our life back on track. My guys have discovered that I have a victim mentality. Fair enough-I was raised that way-everything that went wrong was always, somehow, my fault. I carried this into my adult life by trying to fix any problem that my family encountered. I was always there to take up the slack. If I failed, I blamed myself for not trying hard enough.

Last summer we had our house re-roofed and a new porch built. L was in between cataract surgeries and couldn't see well enough to function. I took up the slack and emptied the old porch of 12 yrs worth of clutter. I spent the rest of my summer caulking, priming, and painting the new porch.

My ankle is still weak. I spend my afternoons reducing the swelling in my ankle so I can work the next day. I don't dare get on a ladder or walk over rough ground. It's the middle of August and the old porch is still gracing our front yard. The lawn hasn't been mowed in 2 weeks. The living room is knee-deep in clutter, and we can't even walk into our den! ENOUGH!

Last weekend I announced that I'm shedding my victim image. I started out by giving L some ultimatums about his passive-aggressive behavior. This weekend my guys will get an earful about taking up the slack for Mom. My guys are acting like my sprained ankle means a vacation from chores for them. NO MORE!

Remember Bambi? Thumper said that his Mama says:"If you can't say somethin' nice; don't say nothin' at all." That's bullshit! This year, if I wait to say something nice, I don't have anything to say....then I'm accused of making myself a victim. There's about to be a regime change-goodbye Ms Victim--hello Mrs. Bitch!

WEIRDO!

My dear blogfriend, Vancouver Voyeur, has asked "Where you at?". VV would be proud to know that I have been enlisting a new therapy to conquer my blahs...I've been releasing my inner weirdo.

Our summer has been only marginally better than our horrendous winter. We have only had 6 or 7 days that it hasn't rained. Our non-rainy days have been spent mowing and trimming our huge lawn. L and Z mow the bulk of the yard with the regular mower. I mow the rough areas with the wheeled line-mower. This is where my weirdness starts to be revealed....

The last time I was mowing, I noticed motion in the grass ahead of me. I stopped the mower and discovered a frog. I tried to pick him up and move him to a safe spot behind our woodpile, but the long grass stymied my efforts. Sooo...I just kept shooing the frog toward safety. Along the way I discovered 2 more frogs. Now, I'm literally herding 3 frogs, 30 feet to safety. It's a good thing that my actions weren't visible from the road that runs past our house. Yeah, I'm a frog-herding weirdo!

This isn't the first time I've exhibited these behaviors. We used to have a HUGE(he weighed at least a pound) toad living in our yard. Before L could mow, I insisted on finding our toad and sitting with him while L mowed. My hours of "toad-sitting" were some of the most peaceful moments of my life. I was free to just soak up the nature surrounding me for a couple of hours every week. I admit it...I'm a weirdo!

We used to have a pair of Mallards that nested in our back yard. For some odd reason, the hen would always decide to move her brood across the busy road, and on to the river, when I was home. I would run out, usually barefoot, and stop traffic until the ducklings were safely across the road. The hen would usually get spooked by the cars and fly to safety, leaving me to herd her babies across the road. SME and L always questioned my sanity following this maneuver. I guess that makes me a weirdo with a death-wish. When driving, I've also stopped traffic to carry turtles to safety...one time on a 4-lane highway.

I suppose you're all wondering what I've been doing to occupy myself when it's raining? Our July has been the coldest on record since 1913. I hate heat, so our 60F temperatures haven't bothered me at ALL! I'd been spending my time creating all sorts of yummy comfort foods...not a good thing for my waistline! Sooo....I decided to revel in my weirdness and spend time soothing myself in my current favorite comfort zone...the garage. I've been cleaning, sorting, and organizing my way into a peaceful frame of mind. I have an old cassette boom-box in the garage. I crank up my music and slowly work my way toward creating the efficient, organized, work-space I want our garage to become. A couple of hours in the garage leaves me feeling like I've done something to bring order into my disaster-ridden year. In the garage, my creativity can run wild and I'm enjoying every minute I can sneak out there. My name is Tshs and I'm a WEIRDO!