You would think that just by the title of this blog I was going to write something really profound and life altering, but no, not so much - not really my style. BUT if you want to read something into it, by all means, be my guest and do share.
I hadn't seen my cousin Brian & his wife Kate for some time and I suggested we get together. They agreed and we planned to meet this weekend to go for a "walk" and pick blue berries. Sounded really nice and wholesome to me and I thought it would be good to do something outdoorsy. My husband, Matt/Bart couldn't make it because he was sent to Cape Cod by his work last Monday and they asked him to stay longer which he reluctantly agreed too...Poor Matt/Bart...I feel horrible for him stuck in Cape Cod. So it was just me and the kids off to Ellenville, NY to go for a "walk" and spend time with my Cousin, his wife and their two boys, Reily & Sully.
Turns out the walk was up a mountain with inclines even your most ardent hikers would have difficulty with. I discovered I had muscles I never knew about and they were screaming. My cousins wife Kate is physically fit, and exercises on a daily basis so she was going along at a nice clip, but my kids & I hung back pretending to be captivated by the views, which to be honest I couldn't really see because I was blinded by the pain. We were then going to climb down to take a peek at the Ice Caves that they have at Sams Point... Sams Point is a giant mound of layered rock that goes straight up about 25 - 30 feet. They say, Sam, the guy they named this after, hurled him self off the highest place on this rock. Now this is pure speculation on my part, but I think he had a friend or cousin that talked him into walking up there and he didn't really hurl himself off the side, he just couldn't feel his legs anymore and slithered off the edge.. I think I know how he felt. Now all he has to show for it is a giant mound of rock named after him, until Donald Trump buys the place, to build a resort and/or casino, and names it after himself. Trumps Point. Has a nice ring.
We then started walking down to the Ice Caves. Here I thought down is certainly better than up, wrong again. It was a bit treacherous and I had a moment to reflect out loud...really loud...for all to hear...that this wasn't how I planned to go after my 44 years of managing to stay alive....I was thinking...80 years, I'm in bed all comfy cosy and then, and only then, do I slip quietly, comfortably, peacefully into eternal rest. Not falling down the side of some mountain named after some guy named Sam, who couldn't cut it, in a sweaty, disheveled heap at the bottom. Pony tail on the side of my head instead of the back, teeth knocked out from the fall, legs wrapped around my head with my femur jutting out...no, that's not what I had in mind at all.
Is there some hidden moral to this story? I'm sure if your read it 4 or 20 times you'll find one and I'm dying to hear it. Would I do it again? Probably, but I'd load up on calcium (for my bones) and wear a helmet.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Fleas
Fleas suck. Literally...I have no blood left in my ankles and they are covered in horrid scabs that I inadvertently keep scratching off and not realizing that I've just scratched off a scab. I'm oblivious to the blood running down my leg until I'm in the grocery store and just happen to glance down at my foot with the dried blood stains. I'm wearing shorts & flip flops -so yes, people will notice even though I try and convince myself they won't. I'm going to have some really nasty scarring. There goes my shoe modeling career, unless of course I'm modeling riding boots. Then I'm good to go. Yeah me!
I am still trying to figure out where the damn things came from. We have an indoor cat and I'm pretty certain, if he had no fur would look something like my ankles. The vet said they could have been dormant all winter and just started to "wake" up as the weather started to warm up OR we could have carried them in on our shoes. A flea version of a wagon train. Little bastards. Makes me wish I was Native American. They bite and the itch just stays with you. It's the gift that just keeps giving. My mother-in -law said they are suppose to die after two weeks if they no longer have a food source which was really discouraging news to me because it would appear that I am their food source. I'm like the mother load and their inviting friends to dine with them. If I weren't so afraid to die, I'd drink poison just to have a little fun with them.
I know eventually as it gets cooler they will go away, but I'm wondering how much of my ankles I will have left. Matt, my husband said "we" should bomb the house, but "we" all know exactly what that means...me, me me. It's not just a matter of setting off some flea bombs and sitting down to read a book. It involves getting the kids, myself, maybe Matt (depending on my mood), the animals out of the house for at least 4 hours and then coming home and cleaning EVERYTHING!! That is a large chunk of my life right there...killing fleas. I will never get that back, ever.
I am still trying to figure out where the damn things came from. We have an indoor cat and I'm pretty certain, if he had no fur would look something like my ankles. The vet said they could have been dormant all winter and just started to "wake" up as the weather started to warm up OR we could have carried them in on our shoes. A flea version of a wagon train. Little bastards. Makes me wish I was Native American. They bite and the itch just stays with you. It's the gift that just keeps giving. My mother-in -law said they are suppose to die after two weeks if they no longer have a food source which was really discouraging news to me because it would appear that I am their food source. I'm like the mother load and their inviting friends to dine with them. If I weren't so afraid to die, I'd drink poison just to have a little fun with them.
I know eventually as it gets cooler they will go away, but I'm wondering how much of my ankles I will have left. Matt, my husband said "we" should bomb the house, but "we" all know exactly what that means...me, me me. It's not just a matter of setting off some flea bombs and sitting down to read a book. It involves getting the kids, myself, maybe Matt (depending on my mood), the animals out of the house for at least 4 hours and then coming home and cleaning EVERYTHING!! That is a large chunk of my life right there...killing fleas. I will never get that back, ever.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
To Offend or Not to Offend
I've been wrestling with whether or not I wanted to do this and finally just decided to jump in with both feet.
I tend to over think things - not just blogging, but pretty much everything and I'd like to try and stop doing that. By the time I've thought things over it's generally too late or I'm just so tired from all that thinking. Anyway, to the title of this first (hopefully not last) blog, one of the things I was overthinking was whether or not I would offend anyone while writing this blog. I certainly am not out to upset, hurt or anger anybody and will make every effort not to do that, but in the event that I do, I would like to apologize in advance - can I do that? Similar to doing jail time prior to robbing the store - it's just not done that way, or maybe it is and I just don't know about it? There was that movie with Tom Cruise in it where they could forsee if someone was going to commit a crime and arrested them based on that. I digress. I tend to do that a lot, but just stay with me because eventually I come full circle.
Back to my apology (in advance). When necessary names will be changed, sometimes places in order to protect the innocent but if I should offend anyone with anything I write, it's really for the greater good. Consider yourself a martyr for the cause. If it's any comfort, I tend to make fun of myself more. What cause you ask. I don't know exactly, but it will be a good one. Details will follow as I figure things out.
Bottom line here is, there might be times where I cross "the line", and I guess we'll all know what line that is by the comments made by the offendee... Geez I hope that doesn't happen.
I tend to over think things - not just blogging, but pretty much everything and I'd like to try and stop doing that. By the time I've thought things over it's generally too late or I'm just so tired from all that thinking. Anyway, to the title of this first (hopefully not last) blog, one of the things I was overthinking was whether or not I would offend anyone while writing this blog. I certainly am not out to upset, hurt or anger anybody and will make every effort not to do that, but in the event that I do, I would like to apologize in advance - can I do that? Similar to doing jail time prior to robbing the store - it's just not done that way, or maybe it is and I just don't know about it? There was that movie with Tom Cruise in it where they could forsee if someone was going to commit a crime and arrested them based on that. I digress. I tend to do that a lot, but just stay with me because eventually I come full circle.
Back to my apology (in advance). When necessary names will be changed, sometimes places in order to protect the innocent but if I should offend anyone with anything I write, it's really for the greater good. Consider yourself a martyr for the cause. If it's any comfort, I tend to make fun of myself more. What cause you ask. I don't know exactly, but it will be a good one. Details will follow as I figure things out.
Bottom line here is, there might be times where I cross "the line", and I guess we'll all know what line that is by the comments made by the offendee... Geez I hope that doesn't happen.
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