Pop

It is the 2 year anniversary of Pop's death. He died at home, alone. It saddens me, still, to realize that no one was there when he died. It saddens me more that it took a whole day for anyone to realize there was a problem.

See, Pop had diabetes and didn't take care of himself very well. He wanted to rule diabetes, not be ruled by it so he set the parameters of how he would live his life. He drank, he smoked, and he ate sweets when ever he wanted. Life was going to be on his terms and no one else's. I guess I should admire him for wanting to live life on his terms, but I find that hard to do. I just keep thinking about the things he has missed and the things he is going to miss.

I miss him, grumpiness and all. I just hope that he is in a better place and at peace with himself because I know he wasn't truly at peace here on earth. Luv ya Pop!

Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop - The Stray Cat

The prompt I chose at Mama Kat's was "Tell us about a stray animal you took in.

This little guy, not so little anymore, he's named Lucky. His name is apropos since he survived some extenuating circumstances.

One day on the way to summer school this car flew down our road in a hurry to get somewhere. Where is unimportant, what is important is that I saw this little black fur ball come rolling out from underneath the car that just passed. He didn't get under the tires for he would have been road kill. Fortunately he got under the car and was tossed to the ditch across the road from my house. I saw him get tossed, but was unable to stop due to the time constraints for the start of summer school.

I came home, not really thinking about the cat again. As it turns out he has quite a loud meow. My sister-in-law, Julia, heard him one night and ignored it. Then she heard him again a second night. Well she went to investigate. She crossed the road to see if she could see the cat making the noise. As she got closer the cat became very quiet, she couldn't see him so she went home. Well Julia decided to go back the next morning to investigate a little more. Amazingly enough the kitten was still there. Poor guy, he was blown across the road by a car, and lived in a drainage ditch for 2 days and 2 nights and survived.

At this point Julia didn't know what I had seen and I didn't know about the rogue kitty from the ditch. So when I returned home, now 3 days later, from dropping the boys off at summer school I see a little black kitten on her porch it is my turn to investigate. I go to Julia's house to see this black fur ball. She is watching him eat, he is very skinny and very young. When he is done she picks him up to give him some love. He is loving the attention. She tells me her story and shows me that he is mildly hurt.....he has road rash. I took one look at him and knew that he was the little black fur ball that was rolling across the road. Before I told Julia what I saw she said that she named the kitten "Lucky", for two reasons......he is black and he survived in the drainage ditch for 2 days and 2 nights. His name is also Lucky for another reason, he escaped the speeding car with 8 of his lives. As far as I am concerned he is a lucky cat and he has used up one of his lives with the car. Lucky is a lucky cat.

I have to say that he escaped moving out too, Julia had a place all lined up for him at a horse facility in order to help keep the mice at bay, but it didn't happen. Fortunately for Lucky the kids fell in love with him as did Julia and I, so we decided to keep him.

Wordless Wednesday

Apron Giveaway

Have you seen this? If you haven't then you haven't been over to The Apron Goddesses. You need to head over there and check it out, Julia is giving away a Sweetheart Apron which was generously donated by Carolyn's Kitchen. If you like what you see here, you can always head on over to Carolyn's Kitchen to see what else they have to offer. You won't be disappointed.

What are you waiting for? Go on, check it out!

Sunday Adventure

I have to give hubby some credit. Today he opted for some "family time" rather than the usual, which is work on his equipment. I love it when he stays home, it gives me a chance to break free from the kids, some down time. But not today, today was another definition of "family time", one I don't want to see too often.

Today "family time" consisted of driving around in a Jeep for 4 hours while he showed the boys a dirt biking park where they can trail ride when the boys get a little older. We stopped on the side of a two lane road and watched for a bit. The boys were impressed to see some kids out there with their dads. Trevor's comment was "I want to ride here dad.", followed by Jeff's comment "Oh you need to get a bit better on your bike Trev." Well, Trevor's comfort level hasn't reached the level of shifting gears, so he has a little more time before he can go. When we finished watching we proceeded to climb to the top of the two lane road that dead ends into a State Park. Little did we know that the State Park was CLOSED. All that driving around just to find that we couldn't proceed to the top to take in a breath taking view.....all the way out to the ocean on a good day. Needless to say we were all a bit bummed, a little hungry, and in need of a good stretch.

By the time we head back down the hill it is close to lunch time, we left our house at 9:45, so the boys are in the back seat complaining about their hunger pangs despite the snacks I provided. Once we make it back to town the boys are pushing and shoving each other in the back seat, a little bit of laughing, a little bit of crying, and a whole lot of noise. At this point my head is ready to explode and my butt is so numb I fear it is going to fall off when I step out of the Jeep. We finally get some lunch and find an empty parking lot to eat it in. While there we get a lunch time show. The show involved some guys on their street bikes all tricked out. We got to see them ride the bikes standing up, on the back wheel, front wheel, etc. They were amateurs, but entertaining none the less. After about 1/2 hour of sitting idle in the Jeep, eating lunch, and watching these guys try not to injure themselves we finally head out for the REAL reason for our Sunday Adventure, which is to get a new battery for the dirt bike Jeff just bought.

Finally, we are at our destination and then we can go home. Or so I thought. Jeff gets his part and then calls his brother about a building. He gives us the general idea where it is and we go check it out. At this point, I am done....head screaming, butt numb and I finally tell Jeff "We need to go home!" So with a little bit of reluctance we head home. I was so relieved to get here that I got in another vehicle and left, just to get some quiet time before the dinner mayhem would begin. So glad the day is over......still have headache. ;-(