L is off again to "The Property" this time. She just got home from Bear Lake, had the week from HELL and hit the high road. I don't blame her, I spent last Thursday and Friday in bed with the famous tachycardia. Fourteen hours worth, only to wake up with a hianus case of hives. Yeah, baby, I'm just living right. As I am wallowing in my misery, L calls to tell me she not only got a bad case of sun stroke, but sun poisoning as well. Boy, I'm telling you, it just doesn't get better than this.
In the mean time, the "boys" have been working on the T & L art studio. Yes, it is true that all the walls are up, the siding is on, the tile has been set and the furniture assembled. However, while painting the walls, drop clothes did not seem to be on the list of priorities. I spent two days scraping paint off the newly installed tile and praying that the Grand Canyon that was dug for the electrical work will be filled in soon before all of my lawn dies. The wheels of progress move ever so slowly and patience has never been a virtue I possess.
On the lighter side, grandma got the splint off of her shoulder, just in time to announce that the right shoulder is giving her some trouble and may need surgery. I could see this one coming a mile away. Perfect, eight more weeks of a huge pain in my rear end. But you have to take the humor where you can get it. I realized yesterday, while we were drawing straws to see who had to go visit grandma, how funny things are. Picture this, Katy, Wade and I are in the kitchen presenting our cases against going to the rehab center. This is how it went: Wade, "But I always have to pull out her chin hairs, and you know how disgusting those can be. Why doesn't she just wax like everyone else?" Katy, "Well, if you think that's bad, I had to clip her toenails. Don't they have people that can do that? And lets not mention that I have given her three manicures since she got there." "Well", I say, "She saves her poop attach until I get there and I am the one that has to pull down her pants and wipe her butt. Plus, I pay her bills and wash her clothes." In the end we all went, including the dog. She needed to see Duke, get her clean clothes and secure her supply of Diet Coke and Baby Ruth's. It is true. grandma is a pain, but at 94 she is still as mean and bossy as ever. We tow the line, believe me. She rarely goes a day without a visitor. God help us.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
THE T & L SNAP WATCH
I have really had a crappy couple of weeks and L isn't exactly doing the "Happy Dance", but you would think that things would start to look up, wouldn't you?
So, the latest event to push me into blog mode was moments ago, when the frame store called to tell me my canvas isn't square. The single only painting I felt frame worthy, and the damn thing isn't square. Perfect! Solution, re-stretch the canvas, $75.00. Well, why not, there is only about $75.00 worth of paint on said canvas, and the canvas was $65.00 to begin with. Framing another $135.00. Sure, what's another $75.00. This must be the pain and suffering of a struggling artist.
That is the ending of the story, here is the beginning. Aside from the fact that my very special daughter-in-law, on a week by week basis, wants to be married or doesn't, I don't care either way, but when she doesn't, I become the proud owner of her husband, my son. In the past month he has been bounced here twice and quite frankly, my tired hurts. Add this to the continuing construction of the T & L Art Studio, grandma's daily problems at the "home"and my husband's dive into depression after the death of his mother and you're lookin' at a whole bucket full of stress. Less has never been more for me, so I can only assume that God was trying to teach me a lesson when he struck me with the POX. A disease so vile that I literally spent two days hallucinating, on a bed in Mesquite, while trying to entertain friends and celebrate my daughter's 18th birthday. Swine flu would have been a cake walk. This thing changed symptoms daily. Twelve days later, I'm proud to say that I can drink water without throwing up, can eat small amounts of food and have stopped shaking enough to type on the keyboard. The only residual effects are an extremely nasty attitude and sixteen rows of fever blisters that haven't quite healed. Wait, I think I had the nasty attitude before the illness.
During our morning discussion, not surprisingly, L voiced my same feelings. It is just a matter of time before someone gets their head snapped off. Mercury may be in retrograde, the planets may be unaligned, it may be karma, but I think we have just had a gut full. We are a fun loving duo. We give to our kids, the community, our friends and clients until it hurts and then one day, you wake up and wonder why they all expect so much. Our own fault, true, but I think there is a new Sheriff in town. Come on, L, let's saddle up and take a little vacation. Hugs, T.
So, the latest event to push me into blog mode was moments ago, when the frame store called to tell me my canvas isn't square. The single only painting I felt frame worthy, and the damn thing isn't square. Perfect! Solution, re-stretch the canvas, $75.00. Well, why not, there is only about $75.00 worth of paint on said canvas, and the canvas was $65.00 to begin with. Framing another $135.00. Sure, what's another $75.00. This must be the pain and suffering of a struggling artist.
That is the ending of the story, here is the beginning. Aside from the fact that my very special daughter-in-law, on a week by week basis, wants to be married or doesn't, I don't care either way, but when she doesn't, I become the proud owner of her husband, my son. In the past month he has been bounced here twice and quite frankly, my tired hurts. Add this to the continuing construction of the T & L Art Studio, grandma's daily problems at the "home"and my husband's dive into depression after the death of his mother and you're lookin' at a whole bucket full of stress. Less has never been more for me, so I can only assume that God was trying to teach me a lesson when he struck me with the POX. A disease so vile that I literally spent two days hallucinating, on a bed in Mesquite, while trying to entertain friends and celebrate my daughter's 18th birthday. Swine flu would have been a cake walk. This thing changed symptoms daily. Twelve days later, I'm proud to say that I can drink water without throwing up, can eat small amounts of food and have stopped shaking enough to type on the keyboard. The only residual effects are an extremely nasty attitude and sixteen rows of fever blisters that haven't quite healed. Wait, I think I had the nasty attitude before the illness.
During our morning discussion, not surprisingly, L voiced my same feelings. It is just a matter of time before someone gets their head snapped off. Mercury may be in retrograde, the planets may be unaligned, it may be karma, but I think we have just had a gut full. We are a fun loving duo. We give to our kids, the community, our friends and clients until it hurts and then one day, you wake up and wonder why they all expect so much. Our own fault, true, but I think there is a new Sheriff in town. Come on, L, let's saddle up and take a little vacation. Hugs, T.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
THE BROWN COW
Okay, so, today was my day to visit mom in the rehab center. Once, again, they have withheld her beloved suppositories and she is backed up. By the grace of God, they produced the almighty suppository for her use, but it only worked half way. After an hour of straining and an unwanted extraction, the nurse brought in a concoction of prune juice and milk of magnesia. I, for one, would have added a little vodka, but what do I know. The nurse proclaimed this the magic "Brown Cow", which, can I tell you, sent me into waives of mirth. What a name, it conjures so many things, none of them good. Well, about the time they took her to lunch, said magic "Brown Cow" began to work and you can imagine the rest of the story. Kathy Griffin, where are you when I need you and L how can you leave me at a time like this?
Back to serious. L please continue the story of New Orleans. T
Back to serious. L please continue the story of New Orleans. T
GONE AGAIN
Well, L is off to LA again to attend her Aunt's funeral, and since we have such a following, it is my responsibility to continue the story.
Travel has become one of the ways we have learned to cope with stress and everyday living, so it didn't surprise me when L announced that we needed to go to Memphis and New Orleans in the spring of 2007. My job is simply to make the trips happen. L gets the idea and I get the travel agent. Fortunately, Collette, our fabulous agent, has learned, over the course of time, not to question, just arrange. She is truly a special spirit!
June 2007 we are off to Memphis armed with our newly obtained Crown Room Card, vital necessities like hand sanitizer, toilet seat covers and a wine bottle opener. That's all you need, right?
L had done her homework and we had a list of all the hot spots: Beale Street, Sun Records, The Civil Rights Museum, and of course Elvis. Beale Street was our first stop.
BB King's club was amazing. Preston Shannon was so gifted with the tongue playing guitar that we spent two nights there. Get a visual here, ladies, it is something you have to see to believe. He was so good, we hardly noticed the two shooting victims just outside the club. Back at the room, we also didn't notice the fired alarm going off in the hotel. Fortunately, neither incident was fatal. Based on what we saw, it was just business as usual in downtown Memphis.
As with all of our adventures, Bill seems to attract friends. Coming back from the Sun Records tour, a random man started walking with us. Before we knew it, he and Bill were talking and smoking together. Bill is a kind man and I believe gave him some money and some smokes. Next morning, the same man was waiting outside the hotel to personally guide us to the Civil Rights Museum, smoking and talking all the way, broken up intermittently with a song or two,
Now, I will give some tips here. For those of you that want to go to Memphis, do see the Museum, go to Beale Street, do the Sun Records tour and sample all the fine dining. The Elvis thing....Well, being the "King" and all, he sure didn't have very good taste in much of anything. No offence to his fans, but, for real, the man had no aesthetic vision. My mother, who wore brown every day could put together a house better than he did. Wait, she did decorate like Elvis, that's probably why I am so judgemental.
I'm going to leave you with our little departure trip from Memphis and then L will fill you in on New Orleans. You've heard the song "The City of New Orleans". Well, it is a train that goes from Chicago to LA. It seemed romantic at the time to book four tickets on said train and travel from Memphis to New Orleans. Not so much. Departure time 6:00 AM. Arrival time 6:00 PM. In between time, a whole lot of bad smells, gut sucking toilets, horrific food, no smoking and uncomfortable seats. Up side, yes there is one, they had really bad wine, but it was better than no wine. Take it away L.
Travel has become one of the ways we have learned to cope with stress and everyday living, so it didn't surprise me when L announced that we needed to go to Memphis and New Orleans in the spring of 2007. My job is simply to make the trips happen. L gets the idea and I get the travel agent. Fortunately, Collette, our fabulous agent, has learned, over the course of time, not to question, just arrange. She is truly a special spirit!
June 2007 we are off to Memphis armed with our newly obtained Crown Room Card, vital necessities like hand sanitizer, toilet seat covers and a wine bottle opener. That's all you need, right?
L had done her homework and we had a list of all the hot spots: Beale Street, Sun Records, The Civil Rights Museum, and of course Elvis. Beale Street was our first stop.
BB King's club was amazing. Preston Shannon was so gifted with the tongue playing guitar that we spent two nights there. Get a visual here, ladies, it is something you have to see to believe. He was so good, we hardly noticed the two shooting victims just outside the club. Back at the room, we also didn't notice the fired alarm going off in the hotel. Fortunately, neither incident was fatal. Based on what we saw, it was just business as usual in downtown Memphis.
As with all of our adventures, Bill seems to attract friends. Coming back from the Sun Records tour, a random man started walking with us. Before we knew it, he and Bill were talking and smoking together. Bill is a kind man and I believe gave him some money and some smokes. Next morning, the same man was waiting outside the hotel to personally guide us to the Civil Rights Museum, smoking and talking all the way, broken up intermittently with a song or two,
Now, I will give some tips here. For those of you that want to go to Memphis, do see the Museum, go to Beale Street, do the Sun Records tour and sample all the fine dining. The Elvis thing....Well, being the "King" and all, he sure didn't have very good taste in much of anything. No offence to his fans, but, for real, the man had no aesthetic vision. My mother, who wore brown every day could put together a house better than he did. Wait, she did decorate like Elvis, that's probably why I am so judgemental.
I'm going to leave you with our little departure trip from Memphis and then L will fill you in on New Orleans. You've heard the song "The City of New Orleans". Well, it is a train that goes from Chicago to LA. It seemed romantic at the time to book four tickets on said train and travel from Memphis to New Orleans. Not so much. Departure time 6:00 AM. Arrival time 6:00 PM. In between time, a whole lot of bad smells, gut sucking toilets, horrific food, no smoking and uncomfortable seats. Up side, yes there is one, they had really bad wine, but it was better than no wine. Take it away L.
Friday, June 19, 2009
PONDERINGS
While L is off to appeals court and before I get off to COSTCO, I have just a few ponderings.
1. Does L really think that I would turn down the cases and cases of wine she secured in Cali? Not a chance. Let the wine flow and the painting begin.
2. Has anyone tried to purchase LDS garments lately, with no prior knowledge of how the system works? This one is a whole blog by it's self.
3. Do people who kill abortion doctors not find any irony in the killing of the doctors and their stance on PRO-LIFE? This one is hard for me to wrap my mind around.
4. If someone is released from jail, how is it that no one knows they still have a warrant out for their arrest. Again, mystifying.
5. This one is truly amazing to me: Why do good people die and the really bad ones stick around to bug the shit out of us?
Just a few things on my feeble little mind today.
On another note, on the off chance anyone truly reads this stuff, I would like to say that the passing of Ned Alger is a profound loss, not just to the University of Utah, but for all the people whose lives he touched. A finer man you will never meet. My love and condolences to his family.
Now off to COSTCO...Smokey Robinson at Red Butte tonight!
Happy Father's Day to all you dads. Love, T
1. Does L really think that I would turn down the cases and cases of wine she secured in Cali? Not a chance. Let the wine flow and the painting begin.
2. Has anyone tried to purchase LDS garments lately, with no prior knowledge of how the system works? This one is a whole blog by it's self.
3. Do people who kill abortion doctors not find any irony in the killing of the doctors and their stance on PRO-LIFE? This one is hard for me to wrap my mind around.
4. If someone is released from jail, how is it that no one knows they still have a warrant out for their arrest. Again, mystifying.
5. This one is truly amazing to me: Why do good people die and the really bad ones stick around to bug the shit out of us?
Just a few things on my feeble little mind today.
On another note, on the off chance anyone truly reads this stuff, I would like to say that the passing of Ned Alger is a profound loss, not just to the University of Utah, but for all the people whose lives he touched. A finer man you will never meet. My love and condolences to his family.
Now off to COSTCO...Smokey Robinson at Red Butte tonight!
Happy Father's Day to all you dads. Love, T
Thursday, June 18, 2009
RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD
I could say, "thank God and Greyhound," but it was the old convertible, not Greyhound that brought me home. This morning, going through Mesquite, Arizona and St. George, the weather was perfect - around 70-72 degrees. I had the top down, the wind blowing through my hair (it's a great excuse for not doing anything with your hair in the morning, and then blaming it on the wind)! So, I'm driving down the highway, with the ipod blasting away, I'm singing along with the tunes, when I look at the windshield and think to myself "are those tiny little raindrops?" Well, being the ever adventurer that I am, I didn't give it a second thought. Well, in retrospect, I should have given it a little more thought than I did, because about 30 seconds later, I am being pelted with a nice cold rain shower. It kind of reminded me of the scene in k-9 with Jim Belushi, where he makes the dog go through the car wash in the convertible so that it will get a bath. By the time I was able to pull to the side of the road, I was sopping wet and even after I put the lid up on the car (that's what my grandson Trace calls the top), the inside of the top kept dripping on me. Well, at least it kept me from falling asleep. You know, maybe it was my singing that caused the downpour!!!!
After I got home, I didn't realize just how many bottle of wine I purchased from the various wineries, until I started unloading it. T - it's a rough job, but someone has to help me drink all this wine. Are you up for the challenge?
Anyway, I'm back in one piece and absolutely cannot wait for Smokey Robinson tomorrow night. Cheers!!!!! L
After I got home, I didn't realize just how many bottle of wine I purchased from the various wineries, until I started unloading it. T - it's a rough job, but someone has to help me drink all this wine. Are you up for the challenge?
Anyway, I'm back in one piece and absolutely cannot wait for Smokey Robinson tomorrow night. Cheers!!!!! L
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
PRAISE GOD
Thank God and all that is holy, L is on her way home. Just in time for appeals court and Smokey Robinson! Yes, the cell phones work, and we do use them, however, there is a comfort knowing she is right around the corner.
So much has happened since she left. Of course, so much happens when she is here. L's aunt died unexpectedly, the rain didn't stop, the weeds grew and our art studio is progressing nicely. I had a fight with the wonderful nursing supervisor at mom's care center, only to find out she was a previous client of L's, go figure and the kicker, mom got a boyfriend, she didn't want in rehab. Fortunately, for him, "Matt" left the facility yesterday.
You may wonder how we decided who would be L and who would be T. Mom pretty much decided that for us. L was always her favorite. L was well educated, brilliant, funny and wise, while I was a little bit loopy, not so bright and a loose cannon. After watching the movie for the umpteenth time it was clear which parts we should play. Thanks, mom.
Go forth and prosper. I am off to buy ceiling fans, track lighting and pay mom's bills.
See you soon L. Love you, long time, T.
So much has happened since she left. Of course, so much happens when she is here. L's aunt died unexpectedly, the rain didn't stop, the weeds grew and our art studio is progressing nicely. I had a fight with the wonderful nursing supervisor at mom's care center, only to find out she was a previous client of L's, go figure and the kicker, mom got a boyfriend, she didn't want in rehab. Fortunately, for him, "Matt" left the facility yesterday.
You may wonder how we decided who would be L and who would be T. Mom pretty much decided that for us. L was always her favorite. L was well educated, brilliant, funny and wise, while I was a little bit loopy, not so bright and a loose cannon. After watching the movie for the umpteenth time it was clear which parts we should play. Thanks, mom.
Go forth and prosper. I am off to buy ceiling fans, track lighting and pay mom's bills.
See you soon L. Love you, long time, T.
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