WHAT'S SPILLING FROM THE BAG?

Mama and I went to the grocery last week. We drove Susan's van. When we got home I carried in Mama's groceries and put them in the kitchen. It wasn't long until she called and asked if I had missed anything I had bought. I told her I hadn't. She said she had a sack of flour or sugar or meal and it wasn't hers. I assured her that I hadn't bought anything like that either. A day or so later I was at Mama's and she asked me about it again. So I looked at it and immediately laughed off my head. It was a sack of sand from the beach at Perdido Key, Florida. Susan had brought it home in July and it was still in her van. I'm glad she didn't use it for cooking.

X IS FOR XEBEC

Xebec - a small three-masted pirate ship. Maybe in my former life I sailed on a xebec. My name could have been Alicia. Maybe I wore a ragged red shirt and tattered black pants. My boots would have been scratched from dropping my blade, which would be blood stained from cutting myself when picking it up off the deck. Maybe my hair would have been long, matted and dirty. Lice would have crawled through my locks. Thank goodness there were no bras on pirate ships. I could have cussed like a real pirate and ripped meat off the bone with my front teeth. The stars would be visible through the cracks beside my bunk and I would have looked up at them before dreaming of seas yet to be sailed.

Y IS FOR YESTERDAY

Yesterday, my mother and I had our picture taken with Santa. Yesterday, we spent the day shopping and laughing.

Z IS FOR ZWIEBACH

Zwiebach. When my daughter was born, my mother couldn't wait to feed her zwiebach. As soon as Susan was able to hold it by herself, my mother was feeding it to her. The little crackers were hard as a rock but baby slobber soon reduced them to a gooey mess that just as quickly dried. It almost took a chisel to get it off of her face and hands. She would also gag on the pieces that slid down her throat. We would have to dig it out of her mouth with a finger or she would throw up all over the place. Susan seemed to enjoy it, although I can't imagine why. That little zwiebach-eater is now 38 and has three girls of her own.

FILLING EASTER EGGS WITH HALLOWEEN CANDY TO HIDE IN THE CHRISTMAS TREE

LEAH AND HER YELLOW EASTER EGG

CELEBRATING HOLIDAYS

Last Wednesday, Leah and I spent the day together. Our first stop was TWISTED TWIGS. It isn't necessarily a kid friendly store but Leah had the best time. Her favorite rooms were the ones displaying the dog accessories. Leah doesn't have a dog. But she sure enjoyed all the fancy dog items. She was such a good girl. Our next stop was The Salvation Army store. I wanted to visit my friend, Serena. The first thing Leah found in the store was a container of 8 Easter eggs, all colors and decorated with stickers. She also had a fine time playing with the stuffed animals, talking to them and sitting them on the couches and chairs. Wehn we got ready to leave she picked out her favorite one and we bought it along with the Easter eggs. Leah chose Old McDonald's for lunch. On our way home we stopped at a junk store where she found a little stuffed teddy bear all dressed up for Christmas. They gave it to her and she was happy. Later Wednesday night, Leah was playing with her Easter eggs so I asked her if she wanted to have an Easter egg hunt. She ran to the drawer and came back with a bag of candy Halloween pumpkins. She put one in each egg. She found a basket for the eggs and hid her eyes while I had the egss. I had them in the Christmas tree. We took turns hiding and hunting. When it was my turn to hunt she would snap her fingers to help me find the eggs. It was so much fun.

NEUTERED HERBIE MILLER

TREASURE JAR

Olivia loves junk stores. She thinks it is the best adventure. Her latest favorite things are the treasures she found in a jar. She finds some use for everything, sorts them by color or size, wears them, tells me how pretty it all is to her. Olivia also loves snow globes and she was excited to find one with puppies, another with bears. She is quite the junk store shopper.

WHEN HERBIE MILLER WAS A BABY

HERBIE MILLER LEAVING HOME FOR SURGERY

DR. WOLFE TAKING HERBIE TO SURGERY

NEUTERED HERBIE MILLER

SLEEPING

Olivia is cuddling Little Phineas while Sadie and Lydia sleep at her feet.

NEUTERING HERBIE

Herbie Miller goes in for surgery in the morning. He will be a much calmer bunny and hopefully will not try to bite me again. He doesn't know about the surgery yet, poor Herbie, he will be so surprised.
I've been reading about rabbit neutering and am a bit concerned that the vet doesn't know enough about rabbits. I was told not to feed him after midnight. Everything I have read says to not withhold food until 2 hours before surgery. Bunnies don't vomit and their digestive tract can shut down if it is empty too long. I also read that the stress of surgery and being away from people they know can make them give up. If I don't like the looks of things in the morning I won't leave him there. I'll have to find another vet for Herbie.

MY DAUGHTER

LEAH

BIG BAD LEAH

OLIVIA

FOOD

I haven't eaten anything today that I much liked. The best thing was 2 biscuits with gravy and a coke early this morning. After that, nothing has come close. For lunch, I had a bowl of Special K. The best part of that lunch was eating it out of the Halloween bowl that Jeanie gave me, 2 bowls actually, both filled with candy, which I promptly ate. The candy, not the bowls. Since I seem to live from meal to meal, I've been thinking about breakfast for tomorrow. I will want something really good that will require very little effort on my part. Olivia is here and she will be hungry much earlier that me. Maybe I should have a snack now, just to tide me over.

NOVEMBER

November. I don't know how this happened. The months have gone on and left me floating along. I have done very few of the things I set out to do this year. I guess I still have time to do a thing or two.
I was going to have a yard sale but the building leaked. I threw away my yard sale stuff. At least, that's one good thing that came out of the leaky roof.
I just finished reading three books by Sonny Brewer. I wish I had three more, I liked them all. My favorite is A SOUND LIKE THUNDER.
Sonny, I hope you are writing.

MY GRANDFATHER'S DESK

SALVAGING

It was a Thursday. Tracy had been here cleaning the house. I had actually worked hard, putting away things, hanging up clothes, just being domestic. With the house clean and not having to cook supper, I decided I would read and take a nap on the couch. I gathered my book, reading glasses, diet cherry 7-UP, a few fun size Snickers, a toothpick, the inhaler and nose spray, Bucky pillow and the velour blanket. Just as I got myself wrapped in the blanket, my reading glasses on and my book open, the phone rang. It was Mama. She said she had an awful mess, the roof in the white building had leaked and it was bad. Oh no, I thought, here goes my nap. I reluctantly lifted myself off the couch, folded the blanket and put on my shoes.
I drove the car into Mama's back yard, close to the building. Mama was already pulling things out and giving them a sling. I looked in the building and she was right, it was bad. I started filling trash bags and moving things around but it was about too much for me to handle. Mama had called John, her neighbor across the street. I have never been so glad to see anybody. He dug into the mess and soon had a path and was making some order of it all. We were able to salvage the most important things, except one. But that's too sad for me to think about now.
Meanwhile, Mama is in the yard trying to move things around, but they are moving her instead. She kept toppling over and we would have to help her up. Then I heard her calling me. I went to the back of the house and she had fallen in the well. It's a good thing we had been filling in the well for the last several years. She had fallen backwards, she was nearly folded in half, her head and feet sticking out of the well. She was laughing so I knew she wasn't hurt. Or at least I didn't think she was hurt. While I was trying to get her out of the well, I got so tickled at her that I couldn't pull her out. Finally, John had to come help. He didn't know what to think of either one of us. Falling was funny until she tripped on a cord, hitting her head on a metal table, and hurting her foot and arm. A big blue knot popped out on her forehead. She assured us she was fine but that was the end of her trying to help. She was also getting cold so I sent her in the house. Every few minutes she would come to the back door and tell us how sorry she was that she wasn't helping, we would be dead (we weren't), my back would hurt (it did), we would get dirty (we did), did we want anything to drink (we didn't), were the trash bags too heavy (they were), would I have asthma (probably), was I still coughing (yes, I was), how much longer (much too long), what would we do with the trash (who knows), were we hungry (no), were we ruining our clothes (no doubt, we were), did we like her (not a bit).
As night came on, I put much of the salvaged things in Mama's car. The car was already about full but I found room to stuff more in every nook and cranny. The car serves as a nice storage building. The keys have been lost for years.
Some salvaged things went to St. Vincent de Paul and to the Mountain Mission building. I brought papers and books to my hosue to dry. I managed to save all the papers that were important.
I'm going to repair my grandfather's desk. It is wet but not totally ruined. The Furniture Medic will probably have to be called in for consultation.
There is a lot more work to be done but today I'd rather read. I'll think about the building tomorrow.

MOONFLOWER

The moonflower bloomed tonight. I just happened to see it when I went out to cover up the bunny. It is just beautiful.

DRESSING UP

At the beginning of summer I spent a day working on John Michael's flower beds. I accidently soaked my shoes and socks. Since I was meeting Jeanie for lunch, I had to have dry shoes. I made a quick trip to Walmart, thinking I could get some flip flops that would get me through the rest of the day with dry feet. Instead of flip flops I found the most wonderful pair of sandals for a mere $18. My feet were so happy to be dry and to have sandals that actually felt good. They have been my favorite summer shoes. And then one day not long ago, lo and behold, Walmart was having a summer shoe sale. Half price! I searched the shelves and found another pair of the sandals in my size so I bought them, thinking I could have them for next summer, being sure they wouldn't have the same style again.
The shoes sat in the box under the dining room table for days and days. The rabbit needed a new box for his bed so I dumped the shoes out and put the box in the cage. Herbie Miller made himself a nice bed with Timothy Hay and was quite content. Of course, he poops in his box. I switch out the box top and bottom, shaking out the dirty one and letting it air. He likes a clean bed.
Last week I was to meet writer friends for a book event and supper. I had to take Olivia to school and since I wasn't coming home I decided it would be a good day to get a hair cut and a pedicure. And I could wear my new shoes.
I went to John Michael's house to take a nap and change my clothes. I got all spiffied up but I had left my shoes in the car. I drove across town, parked the car, got my shoes out of the back seat, sat them on the ground and stuck my feet in them. My left foot slid right in and felt fine, but something was amiss with the right foot. I wiggled my foot around and it still didn't feel good. Then I took a good look at the shoes, two left feet.
My pedicure looked great with my old shoes.

MY LEFT FEET

OKRA

Back in the spring I bought one lone okra plant. I bought it because it was sitting there on the shelf all by itself. I planted it in the grass clippings with the tomato plants. It grew slowly at first and then took a growing jag. I had no idea what okra would look like on the vine so missed it until the first mess was way too big to eat. I took it to Mama and she said it was too hard to even cut with a hatchet. I began to watch it and the next mess was just right. I have taken it all to Mama, it was just too scary for me. Now the plant is blooming. It's a delicate white bloom with a purple center, much prettier that I would expect to find on an okra plant. Mama will have a bit more okra to fry and eat. Then the plant will go to seed and wait for winter.

A VISIT

Uncle Joe, Aunt Jeane, & K. Joe came for a visit today. It was good to have them here. Mama had spaghetti and meatballs for lunch. K. Joe & I went for a drive while the rest of them napped. We visited our relatives in the cemetery and drove the back country roads. We didn't take our relatives though.

CABBAGE ROLLS AND A TRUCK

The day started out with plans to do a couple of errands with Mama. As often happens with us, we ended up doing more than we planned. We finished our errands and, of course, we had to eat. Mama said she had heard of a good place to eat in Beaver Dam, The Bluegrass Cafe. She said it was on a street that turned off the main street. This wasn't the first time we had looked for this place. Finally, after driving several streets, I saw a sign that read The Wagon Wheel Cafe. I asked her if she thought that might be the one. She agreed it probably was. It seemed a good enough place to eat so I parked, warning Mama not to fall in the ditch when she got out of the car. The walls were decorated with wagon wheels, of course. The building was built in the shotgun style, two dining rooms, the kitchen along the side. The menu was lengthy, a wide variety of items. We both decided on cabbage rolls and mashed potatoes. I also had white beans and cornbread. Mama had beets. A lot of beets. She was quite concerned that the beets would get on her other food so the waitress assured her that the beets would be in a bowl. When asked what she wanted to drink, Mama replied, whiskey. The poor girl didn't know what to think but laughed. She told the other waitress what she had said and they both had a good laugh. We did not go away hungry, the food was good and the place was interesting. Mama wondered if the other people wondered why we were there. I told her I doubted anybody had noticed we were there. She asked me if we were the only women there. We weren't. She asked me if I thought the same people ate there every day. I had no idea. How long had the cafe been open, she asked. I didn't know.

Our next stop was St. Vincent de Paul. Mama didn't find anything she wanted. She liked a butter dish but it was $2.00. She would have bought it for a quarter, she said. I bought a glass, a white saucer, and two crocheted collars, each for a quarter.

Our next order of business was to decide whether to stop at Walmart to get breadsticks or wait and get fresh ones in the morning. We knocked this around at considerable length. She wanted me to decide and I didn't care one way or the other. We finally settled on getting fresh ones tomorrow. With that settled I told her I wanted to stop and look at a truck. Mama got out of the car with me to look at the truck. The salesman laughed and told us he got a kick out of a woman her age looking at a heavy duty truck. She assured him she wished she could drive it right off the lot. I don't think he would have been a bit surprised if she had done just that. Neither would I.

OLIVIA

OLIVIA TURNS 5

Olivia is 5 years old today. She had a princess cake which was mostly what she ate for supper. She did eat 4 lima beans! Her presents were her favorite part of her birthday, she said. She was excited with all her gifts and had so much fun opening them. Herbie Miller, the rabbit, gave her a present, a stuffed pink sand crab. She just couldn't figure it out, asking me if he went with me to shop. Singing was not part of this birthday party, she made us all promise that we would not sing. So we didn't.
I wish for her, carefree days, books, and joy.

MASHED POTATOES

Back Row L to R : Anna Ruth holding Jane Ellen, Billy holding Joe David, Jeane, Joe holding K. Joe.

Front Row L to R: Uncle B with me in his lap, Pole, Grandy, Mama, Daddy.

This photo was taken in the living room of my grandparent's house. It probably wasn't long before the death of my grandfather. We all spent a lot of time in this house, gathering to settle ourselves around the kitchen table, to celebrate birthdays or holidays, to talk and listen, just to be there.

As usual, I found my way to sit in Uncle B's lap. Pictures show that this was my favorite place to sit. I can't remember when this picture was taken but I can remember the comfort of being with my Uncle B. He never gave me a harsh word or looked at me without anything but love.

Uncle B was always up for fun, meals being no exception. Mashed potatoes were usually a part of any meal we had at my grandmother's house. We would all gather around the big round table in the kitchen, me always sitting by Uncle B. When the mashed potatoes came to us, I knew what was going to happen. He would ask me if I wanted potatoes, and I did. The spoon would go deep into the fluffy heap of mashed potatoes, slowly Uncle B would take it out, hold it high above my plate, with a quick flick of his wrist the potatoes would leave the spoon where they would splat all over my plate, and often on the table and me. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. After we finished eating, we would all go to the living room. I listened to every story Uncle B told and as always, I was sitting close to him.

A RABBIT, A CAT, & A CLEAN FLOOR

I love a clean floor, although I don't like to vacuum. Today the floor is clean, freshly vacuumed, thanks to Tracy, who cleans the house from time to time. How nice to come home to a clean house after a day of substituting.
The bunny rabbit, Herbie Miller, hasn't been out of his cage for a couple of days so I brought him in the house to get some exercise. He was so excited, hopping all over the house, taking time to rest under the bed, then hopping around again. I fixed him a plate of lettuce, cabbage, and carrots, prepackaged, organic, and set it on a towel in the middle of the living room floor. Going back into the kitchen I hear Lydia scratching at the back door. Then I get myself all settled in the chair with the computer. Herbie MIller soon found his food and joyfully started eating. Here comes Lydia! She creeps under the rocking chair, never taking her eyes off the rabbit. Herbie Miller is so busy eating that he doesn't see Lydia. Right in the middle of a tasty morsel, Lydia pounces. Herbie jumps sky high, his back legs landing right in the middle of his plate. As he lifts off with his strong back legs, his supper goes in every direction, scaring Lydia so bad, she runs in the opposite direction. All I could do was laugh, even if my clean floor was covered in lettuce, cabbage, and carrots.

HERBIE MILLER EATS HIS SUPPER

LYDIA STALKS HERBIE MILLER