Nature Songs ~~~~
JULY, 2001
"These are times in which a Genius would wish to live.
It is not in the still calm of life,
or the repose of a pacific station,
that great characters are formed...
Great necessities call out great virtues."
~~Abigail Adams, American first lady (1744-1818)
July 1, 2001 - What a coincidence! Here I choose a quote by the wife of our earlier president, Abigail Adams, and the Sunday Morning program on television is about her husband ... Seems this sort of thing happens for me quite often. I used to have my class lessons worked out at school and low and behold, something would occur at school to correspond with my lessons. The Seseme Street Show would have the same letter of the alphabet or certain number working for them while I was also doing it in the classroom.
It's drawing nigh until noon and BingoKid is still sleeping. It's most unusual that Charlie hasn't already chosen to become the activated alarm clock and put his skills to work waking up his charge. He has stationed himself in his own little bed on the floor beside the human bed and keeping a watchful eye for any sign of waking up on the part of BingoKid. I have Oreo keeping tabs on me. Bingo, BingoKid's dog has yet to rise and shine, either. He is still in his private nitch back under the darkest corner of my bed. That has been his spot when he is here since he was a pup. He generally come out at the smell of food to beg for some and then return for more sleep. Of course, Bingo is almost as old as BingoKid and that's pretty old in dog years.
There were no Sunday clothes for BingoKid to wear for church this morning. However, it would have been difficult for me to make church and get back home early. Dad is bringing over DynoKid and Giggles from their church very soon. He is going home to take a nap, so he will be refreshed tonight for his trip to Charlotte to put up our world travelers at the airport. Their flight is due in at eleven, but in airport lingo .... who knows exactly when it will come .... then there is the luggage ... and the goodbyes ...
My plans are to get back into my regular routine on Tuesday for working out and keeping myself fit ....
July 2, 2001 - Around midnight, Tbird called on Hubby’s cellular phone from Charlotte to announce, “We’re back ....!” They were thirty minutes late arriving at the airport from Atlanta. I heard later about her trek the last few days across Australia - two days were spent on buses as they returned to the airport and the kids got restless having to ride so much. Added to that was the interesting fact that she found a vase which she fell in love with and “HAD” to have it. Mailing it back to America was going to cost an arm and a leg because of it’s size and weight. The saleslady packed it in a Styrofoam cooler with the neck of the vase sticking out of one end of the cooler which was wrapped with bubble wrap for the migration home. The package fit overhead in all the planes, but one. From Atlanta to Charlotte, it had to be stored upfront with the Stewardesses. Only my daughter would be one of the few to take on such a task! She mailed home her Aussie hat to keep from having to carry it around, but lugs around about fifty pounds of breakable, awkward bundle.
Near noon the two travelers meandered over our way bearing gifts. Giggles was ecstatic when Mom blew the car horn as she drove around the circle to the house. Mom brought her an Aborigines doll named Dwayne for a small boy that Tbird saw dancing with a group which it resembled. They brought boomerangs for BingoKid and DynoKid. NascarKid had bought one for himself and was taught how to throw and have it return to him. The three of them immediately headed out to the field to try out their treasured possessions.
To my joy, I got not one, but two opals! NascarKid personally picked out a stickpin for me that was a kangaroo with the opal in the pouch. My other gift was a beautiful fire opal necklace. Both of them had a lot of fire, but the necklace was much more brilliant. These I shall cherish for years to come since they are my birthstone. I don’t think that I ever knew that the opal is formed from the fossilized bones of prehistoric animals. A booklet brought back about opals was most interesting.
Tbird rested some more at the house (the air conditioning problem at her house has not yet been solved - it will be the end of the week before the company will be able to replace or update the water cooling system now in the house.) She had only one hour of sleep in the past twenty-one hours of travel! A great deal of that time was spent reviewing her nine charges logs they kept daily on the trip and writing her own review for each child as well as doing a review of every place they ate throughout the whole trip. As she rested, I read some of the information and materials they brought back.
NascarKid received a really nice book, Townsville and Magnetic Island, panoscapes by Peter Lik -Wilderness press of Cairns Queensland, Australia. Townsville was the town where he had his homestay with the Ripley Family. It is the largest tropical city of Australia and is surrounded by the Great Barrier Reef. Browsing through the book, I would love to go there one day ...
Discover & Learn About Australia is one of many books published by Steve Parish concerning many facets of life in Australia. This particular book has 1000 questions and answers about the land and its peoples. I only scanned through and read the questions concerning the pictures throughout the paperback book. It’s one that will take time to browse through.
Once all had come and gone, I managed to fix two containers of watermelon and drove over to eat the luscious morsels along with Mother this evening. BingoKid picked out a round watermelon for us this time and it is one of the best of the season. When I mentioned that she had a gift waiting to be brought to her from Australia, she was wanting me to tell her what it was, which I would not tell her. I did tell her that it was a can. She immediately thought - FOOD! How surprised when she sees what it is actually! It is a can. The can has a lot of information printed on it which she can keep in her window of whatnots, but once it is opened with a can opener, she will find a small koala bear nestled inside for her enjoyment. It is an ideal present for her to share with others.
July 3, 2001 - All right; already! So, I have a gift for making life a little more interesting than most folks may ever have a desire for creating ... These things unconscientiously occur ... Without rhyme or rhythm they materialize in the calendar. I dare not endeavor to explain because then everyone would perceive how up-side-down things transpire for me. I speak lightly of the situation and move on with life.
This particular occurrence happened to be the exchanging of two appointments. In my desk calendar book, I noticed last night that I had Mother’s eye appointment listed for Tuesday afternoon. Charlie and Oreo’s grooming appointment was for Thursday morning. That’s strange because in my pocket planner, Mother’s appointment is Thursday and the grooming is on Tuesday? Plans were already made for me to ride up to Asheville with Tbird and the children early this morning. It was going to push me to get the dogs over in the country one direction and rush back the opposite way to meet Tbird at 8:30 a.m.
I called the groomer shortly after seven to see when I was on the book for my dogs to be groomed. Thank goodness, it was Thursday morning. That gave me plenty of time to get ready and take my time. There was no time to call Mother, but I had told her last evening that I was planning to ride up the mountain. Even so, she left me three messages on the phone before she left for her eye examine.
A regular gully-washer came through here last night. I haven’t heard the official amount of rain to fall, but it had to be several inches at least! Being a slow moving front, it began with thunder and lightening and the rain took its time before moving toward the coast. This morning, my drive to the shed and back door had washed right down the middle of the road. It overflowed the partially filled pipe running under the neighbor’s drive, leaving a deposit of sand across their drive. We had rain as we rode up the interstate this morning. As soon as we topped the mountain, the sun was shining on the other side. Coming back, some of the clouds, mist and fog had spread over the mountain to the other side, but they was no rain.
A postcard from Australia was waiting in the mailbox when I returned home. It was one that NascarKid had sent me. He and his Mom picked out the postcards and bought stamps the first day they were in Australia. He only finished writing on them and getting them mailed a few days before leaving to return home. The postcard was a picture of the Concert Hall inside the Sydney Opera House It seats 2,679 people and has exceptional acoustics. There were no programs on the agenda the day the group took a tour of the Opera House and the leader allowed Tbird to get on the stage and do a song a cappella. It brought cold chills to her skin to hear the perfection of the acoustics in the huge hall. Many of those with her were surprised that she could sing as well as she does, but she does quite a bit of singing around here - especially with a friend of hers. I have no desire to sing in the Opera House, but I would like to go there one day and have a look-see around.
Back down the mountain, and I bring the children home with me until evening ... I missed visiting with Mother, but talking with her over the phone, I heard that one of the stitches was removed from her eye. She goes back in January. That means the other stitches are staying in for over a year ... her surgery was last November.
July 4, 2001 - Little Miss Giggles and I spent several hours by ourselves yesterday. I took the boys over to spend time with BingoKid until their folks came by to pick them up. All my attention was on Miss Giggles during that time. It was nine o’clock when Mom and Dad came to get her. They exchanged two boys for one girl before heading home. The boys spent the night with me.
In a little while, after the boys are up and about, hopefully we will go to BoJ’s and buy Mother a country ham biscuit to take over and surprise her by popping in early today. We will take her some more Cokes and candy to replenish her dwindling supply. On the way to get the biscuits, I have to make a stop at the drugstore and drop off a list of meds to be refilled. I’ve been out of the Methatrexate this week and both elbows are erupting with those pesky itchy blisters I so detest! My ointment takes the edge off the itching, but it takes the pills to make them go away again.
Probably around noon, NascarKid and DynoKid will go with me to the church swimming pool in Hickory for a fun Fourth of July spent in the water with Tbird’s family and maybe the family of her best friend. That means I’ll get to get in some water movements in preparation for returning to the regular daily routine. I forgot that Quest is closed today in observance of the Fourth. Tomorrow will be my first day back with the regular crowd in such a long time.
I’ve been reading up on a food supplement that is supposed to be effective in helping with weight reduction. It has been researched and tested with good results and so far - no adverse reactions noticed. If it is safe and effective, why not give it a try? What is there to lose other than time spend taking a tiny pill twice a day and the money spent to purchase a supply! It is much less costly than the dietary and weight reduction medications prescribed by doctors.
The active ingredient is 3-Acetyl-7-Oxo-Dehydroepiandrosterone a natural substance produced in our adrenal glands. Scientists and doctors believe that it plays an important part in regulating the metabolism. I know that my metabolism has been very inactive. On top of that as we grow older the substance dwindles in supply normally which contributes to the normal weight gain most people experience as they age. I shall give it a try and see if there is any difference in how I feel and loss of poundage.
Sign Guestbook
View Guestbook
Lenoir,NC 28645
United States
©2001 by Stormy Jeanne
All of my writings on this web site are copyrighted. Reproduction and/or distribution of the written works on these pages in any form is prohibited.
