Another week down the drain

Speaking of draining. My cold has now settled into my sinuses.
My throat feel sore and thick.
Thanks to Wheelie's prescription cough medicine I slept like the proverbial baby, but I am still feeling groggy this morning.
It really bothers me to be sick like this, no energy, so sluggish.
I'm just waiting for Wheelie to catch it. Even though I've been very careful about not touching or kissing him or spitting in his dinner.
But he already has this dry little cough, for weeks now, and I'm sure that when he comes down with it it will be a doozie.

The weather has been spectacular these past few days, a little rain now and then to keep the gras green.


Needless to say I don't make much oompf to write, so forgive me if I skip a coupla days.

In the meantime, have a great weekend y'all.

SGMKJ!

Happy Birthday, Bugs

Twenty six years ago I gave birth to a red haired little jewel.
She managed not to be born on the ferry boat on that Sunday morning, but it was very close.

Looking back it just amazes me how fast those 26 years have gone by. How much we've done and experienced. Not all good, not all bad.

We are both so grateful we can be close to her, especially now.

We will surprise her tonight when she comes by to pick up Boo. I've got the 26 pink roses, I've got the cards, I've got da presents and we've got CAKE!

She was happy when I wished her a Happy Birthday this morning when she called after dropping the Booster off at Day Care.
For once she didn't cry (BOO) and the other kids were happy to see her. So she is making friends, and is getting used to the new routine.

As for Wheelie and me, we've done some shopping, we've watches a few movies. The Reader...hmmm...little slow and boring for my taste, and Benjamin Button the other day, didn't like that one either.

I just really don't have much patience these days to watch an entire movie. So it's really just me.

The weather is peachy, I paid $2.29 a gallon for gas today.

Hope to make a few pictures tonight.

SGMKJ!

Wednesday Report

Well, Boo doesn't seem to be happy about Daycare.
We get conflicting reports. One lady says she cries all day long, another lady says she is fine. Her daily report card says she was smiles all day long. Go figure.

Bugs is besides herself every morning when she has the pry Boo off her leg when she drops her off.
When I pick her up she usually starts crying, she looks tired, she's schlepping her meemee (blankie) around.

Okay.

So my daughter tells me she now realizes what it must have been like for me when she had to go to daycare. It was a daily drama. At least, that's the way it was when I dropped her off. Whenever Wheelie did, she was fine. :>)

She calls ME in tears after she drops her off, I don't know what she wants me to do about it.
Although I manage to calm her down, I will not give in and tell her that I'll go back to full time babysitting.
It just takes time, I told her. Besides, she needs to make an effort to check in with the school now and then to see how things are going.
Boo will get used to the new routine. I am sure of it.

(In the meantime I cannot help but grin a little.....payback time!!!)

Of course she (Boo) hasn't been feeling 100%. She came down with a cold last week (which she gave to us, thank you, very much) and I know it's tough for her to make such a huge switch in her little world.

Other than that, we have been fine. I get tons of stuff done at home, enjoy being able to go shopping by myself, read or nap whenever I want to.
I bought supplies to start a scrapbook or two...
I am even getting plans together to change Boo's room. Get rid of the crib and other baby stuff and make it into a real big girl room. Not sure if I want to sell it, or rent a storage place to stow it for the next baby. But that can wait until we receive our stimulus check.
It's also time to get a few annuals in the ground, a nice little trip to the nurseries for Wheelie and me.

It has been raining buckets off and on the past few days. When it rains in Georgia, it pours in Georgia, I mean...not being able to see across the street pouring...fabulous!
The patio door is holding, thanks to our $1000 fix and awning deal. No leaking anywhere.

The runoff river behind our house however is about 15 feet wide now, brrr....

This morning I made an appointment for a mammogram. The first one in 8 years. Doc Tim said it was about time. He know places where you can go for cheap. For people like me, without insurance. Thank God it's at our local Hope center. I am very impressed with that place, after our good experience with the docs there for Wheelie's prostate cancer.
So that's going to happen tomorrow morning.

Getting my tits caught in a wringer....arggggggghhhh...

Doc Tim also checked my sore fingers and my spine the other day. He says it's osteoarthritis. Typical 'getting old' disease. He's not much for "trying" different drugs to see what works to relieve the pain. He told me it's okay to take Advil, if that works for me.

Day after tomorrow my darling daughter turns 26. We haven't mentioned her birthday, and I wonder if she thinks we have forgotten about it. I've been buying her parts of her dinner dishes at Kohls, since it's being discontinued. I pick up a few pieces here and there whenever I see some.

We'll make a trip for a bouquet of pink roses at Costco tomorrow. Costco has the most beautiful roses, 15 bucks for 2 dozen, amazing.

So there you have it.

SGMKJ!

Vacations

No matter how poor we were, when my father got his yearly two weeks off, our family would go on vacation.
Being the organizer she was, my mother made sure that money was saved, the chest with clean ironed linens, towels, our clothes, soap, toiletries, and the large red square tin with 'snacks' was in the hall being slowly filled with all the necessities for that very important time of our family's year.

The picture above was taken on the beach at Scheveningen (most likely) In the days I was the only little twerp they had and I guess they didn't want to stray too far from home.
Notice the hole my mom sat in. It was customary for some reason. To keep the wind out? Who knows! But the first thing my dad always did was bring a shovel, and dug her a nice hole.
She watched me like a hawk and if she wanted to lay down to catch some sun she would tie a rope around me and her foot. Everyone dug holes. The German tourists made huge ones (they practiced in the war, ha ha) and were extremely territorial about their holes. When you came onto the beach and saw a large empty hole, you just avoided using it, knowing those damn Moffen made it, and would probably reclaim it when they came to the beach that day.






The first vacations I truly remember are the ones spent with aunts and uncles. Above a picture of my cousin Iggy, his face lit up with delight as his father pumped water. Me looking on, a bit of an attitude there? looking very much like Boo-boo.






We rented a tent like bungalow. I remember it being very small, people piled up in beds, the kids in cribs together. One night it rained so hard, we were afraid the roof would cave in.
This picture was taken June 27, My aunt Corry's birthday in 1951 or 1952. Iggy on his father;s lap, Aunt Corry holding my brother Ruud. Me on the ground, behind me my mom holding baby brother Carlo with his long blond hair, and behind her my auntie Willy, the auntie I took care of the last years of her life and went to the big Bingo hall in the sky three years ago at age 90.

I remember picking armloads of heather, and being freaked out of my skull by a huge hare, who jumped up and ran. He was HUGE.
Most likely my family came on their bikes, my uncle had a Black VW in those days. I guess they came by car. (Remind myself to ask my mom.) This was in Laren, province Gelderland, smack in the middle of the sandy heidevelden (heather fields) an area called De Veluwe







This picture is very dear to me. It was the year we spent our vacation in refurnished chicken coops in Voorthuizen, also on de Veluwe. Mind you, I use the term refurnished lightly. The buildings were horrible, there was hay on the wooden floors, the roof leaked, and at night the mice ran over your face. You still smelled the chickens. The only thing new were the French doors in the front. There were no bathrooms in the building, so we did the potty thing during the night, and it was papa's duty to empty it in the morning. My sister was a little under a year old. She slept on a tiny cot between the bunk beds on either side of the 'bed'room. After we discovered the mice, she was moved up to a higher bunk with one of us (or my parents, I forget)

My mom, trying to be smart, hid the bread and other food in her large sturdy shopping bag. But the mice were smarter, and we found the bread and the cheese gone the next morning, as well as a large hole through the shopping bag.
We had fun though, we played in the woods, we went to a nearby swimming hole, and we witnessed a huge thunderstorm where the lightning balls rolled over the meadows.





When we were a little older, and when things were financially a little better, we started going to a bungalow park in Overloon (North Brabant) There we at least had inside plumbing, and decent houses. Here we were, having coffee in the morning, me with my guitar, mom in her opklapstoel, where she allowed herself to sit for hours on end and get her tan. These would be the only times I would actually see her doing nothing.
We went to this place a few years in a row. Many families in our area went, we were picked up by touring busses. Our chests/suitcases/bikes would follow us in a moving van. (This was in the first few years. Later on my father would rent a car, always an Opel. :>)

The excitement started when we got on the freeway, and would pass the Nutricia Milk Factory.
Funny, it wasn't that far from our home. But you've got to remember that we never left our neighborhood, never had to, we didn't have a car, everything was close by enough to walk or bike to. So we would yell and holler as we passed Nutricia, thinking we were miles away from 'home' and finally seeing green in the way of meadows, farms, trees, forests, rivers. We were out in the big world.

The years in Overloon were the best for me. I made friends there who would come back year after year. On Friday nights, when people were set to go home on Saturday, the camp owners would organize a huge party. My friends and I took that opportunity to get close to the men folk, without getting in trouble. We played our music, we danced, we played games. There must have been some food involved, but in those days they didn't have hot dogs, hamburgers or pizza, so I'll have to think about that. I forget what we ate.

On Wednesday nights they organized a fox hunt. In the dark. We would split up in groups of about ten, and had to find our camp owner/director, who would hide out somewhere in the forest.
Always spooky, but oh so much fun. No flashlights allowed. Good opportunity for me to hold on to any boy's hand and sneak a peck on the cheek here and there, stuff that would cream your jeans and make you feel extremely guilty at the same time. We had to find little notes on trees with clues to find the way.

Overloon was a bike ride away from one of the large rivers in Holland. The Maas. We used to go and swim with our friends. Horrifically dangerous with the river traffic, and the river flowing at a rapid pace. But we didn't care, some of the boy would swim and climb up onto the barges. It's a miracle no one ever got killed.

The town of Overloon has a very interesting museum. The War museum.

http://www.oorlogsmuseum-overloon.nl/index.php?t=en

(this is the English version)

In the years we were there it was pretty much an area of forest, where tanks, bunkers, and other war stuff was just left in the woods (a huge battle was fought there) and they put a fence around it all and charged people to enter. I am sure it's now a much better organized museum.
The boys would go out on the heather fields and into the woods to find left behind artillery, like bullets and hand grenades. Unbelievable the stuff they would come back with, and so dangerous. But they loved that stuff, anything to to with fire and explosions.

When the two weeks were over and it came time to go back home again, we would all take our showers, don our clean "going-home" clothes. Papa would load the car ( in later years, a rental), we sat and waited obediently until mom had cleaned the house top to bottom, placed a vase with fresh field flowers on the table, mopped the floor creeping backwards towards and out the door. It was her pride and joy to leave the place as clean as possible for the next vacationers.
I always thought she was nuts for doing that. :>)

I was not a nice teenager....:>)

In 1966 we went to a bungalow park in Otterloo. I had a serious boyfriend, Louis. He was invited to come for a few days but he could NOT sleep in the house. He brought his own tent and I was forbidden to enter his tent when no one was around.

Lord.....

I was not allowed to wear my new bikini when Louis was around either....
Poor guy............That was a fun vacation until his mom came to pick him up.





This was pretty much the last vacation I spent with my parents. The place was Appelscha, Friesland. Iggy and his father happened to be visiting from America, and they came and stayed with us a few days. There was lots of laughter with Iggy, sleeping in the car outside, yelling back and forth. And those poor horses...remember Iggy?

My father had just participated in the Vierdaagse, a traditional annual four day walkathon, 40-45 miles a day.
The muscles in his shins were inflamed and he was pretty much out of commission there.
We were pissed, because we couldn't go anywhere. Look at our faces. The girl with the perky bosoms was a friend of one of my brothers, My sister sitting on the wall, my younger brother not looking too happy either. We stayed around the house, played a few nasty games of badminton.
This was the year when my uncle invited me to come to Amerika, it must have been 1967 or 1966.

Of course there are vacations I have forgotten, but we always went. Every year. Come hell or high water. With or without aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces. My mom and dad deserved their leisure time. It wasn't until we were all pretty much grown up that they finally made their very first trip alone together, and that was to come and see me in California in 1969.


It's fun thinking back on all those vacations. As always, I am so grateful for the way our parents made life wonderful for us, making sure we didn't lack of anything. Times were simpler then.

Today it's my turn to made the weekly Holland phone call...I do miss them...Next month is my father's 89th birthday....
I wish I could go.....

SGMKJ!

Allow me a window, by Meta Town

The time will come
to put me away
with or without my senses in tact

It will hurt you
More than it will hurt me
It's just inevitable, my dearest

But whenever that time comes
Promise to keep my chin hairless
my nails clean, my hair neat and short

And allow me a room with a window

The greens outside will calm me
Whether I realize it or not
A nuthatch, a Jay, a Mourning Dove
A tree, a bush, some honey suckle
A spider, a wasp, a fly
Just the wind moving the leaves
or the rain coming down

Please allow me
A room with a window
When the time comes
To put me away


SGMKJ!

Boo is sick

Well wouldn't you know. One day spent in Day Care and she comes home with snot running down her face. Fever all night.
Guess we'll be babysitting today.
Poor little thing.
She seems to have had a good day though, but she only napped for 45 minutes (as opposed to 2 hours) and she was tired. She cried when she saw me when I picked her up.
Bugs feels guilty.
I know the feeling.
But....


SGMKJ!

Tuesday....first day for Daycare

Bugs dropped Boo off at day care for her first time this morning.
It went well. She seemed excited. Gave her mom a big kiss and said: BYEEE!!!

I can't wait to go get her at 5 this afternoon. Find out how she did.

As for us. WOW, talk about having time to DO stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The house is spotless, all the dishes and the laundry done.

I am making plans now to rent a storage place for the crib and the changing table and lots of other crap we have, so I can get a bigger bed for Boo, now that she is becoming a BIG GIRL.

I hope you all like my Dutch story. I realize that I've written some of this stuff not too long ago, but hey.

SGMKJ!

Growing up in Moerwijk-The Hague

The other day I submitted my story to a Dutch website devoted to the neighborhood I grew up in. It was a cathartic experience. I've written this story before many times, but writing it in the Dutch language somehow made it different.
Just being forced to write and think in Dutch again made my memories clearer, and I remembered a few more things that way.

I was about 5 when we were one of the first families to move to a brand new part of town called Moerwijk. We lived in the Beverweerdstraat number 162. In a four room flat, in those days you still only got as much room as you needed.
Livingroom, my parent's bedroom, the boy's bedroom, the girls bedroom, a W.C., a bathroom (no bath or shower, but room for the washing machine) a kitchen a hallway, and a balcony in the back (our generic laundry dryer). The place was tiny, the kids slept on opklapbedden (like a Murphy bed, but not in the wall, you would fold it up against the wall and close curtains around it, with a nice wide shelve on top.)
The only heat came from the kachel in the livingroom (coal) and our rooms were freezing cold in winter.
We lived in the three story building at the end of the street. Middle apartment. We had a small balcony there. This picture was taken about the time we moved in. I actually remember the street being "bricked"

My father worked for the telephone company, he was a technician, installed phones in homes (which at that point was still rare) and businesses, and was also involved in providing the telephone system/network for the entire area.

I was the oldest. I had two brothers, and in 1956 when my sister was born, the family was complete and my mom put a cork in it.:>)

It was pretty lonely in those first days , I missed my little friends from the old neighborhood. But in no time more and more families moved in, and before I knew it we had a street full of children.
My brothers and I made life long friends. Some of the girls and I are still in touch.

I had already attended kindergarten for a year in my old neighborhood, so I had one year left. The school was in the same building as a printing business. A brick building somewhere in the woods. Since new schools were being built as fast as they could manage, (I think we had the largest and most prolific parish in the city) I spent 1st, 2nd and 3rd in one building, then 4th and 5th in another, and finally my 6th year in the new school next to our church. One building for girls run by nuns, one building for boys run by monks (and never the twain shall meet!!)

There are a few memories that stand out from those school days. Our father Oerlemans, who taught Cathechism, who was very modern for his time and drove around on a motor scooter. Since the priests still wore long skirts, he quipped: Rock and Roll!
The biggest impression this man ever made on me, something I have never forgotten, was when he taught us:

"No matter how quickly you lie, the truth will follow eventually"

And being a liar extraordinaire, that really freaked me out, as I learned that this was certainly true in my case. :>)

We had to attend mass every day. Sober...so you could receive communion.
You would get this little ticket, which at the end of the week was collected by your teacher. We still went to school 6 days a week. If you had all 6 tickets, you were safe, and received a 'bidprentje' a small prayer card for your churchbook. (yeah!) If you did not have 6 tickets you would most likely get a stern talking to from your parents.

School hours were from 9 to 12. We then would walk home for lunch. My favorite sandwich, fresh from the baker white bread with butter and sugar. The afternoon school hours were from 2 to 4.
So we did a lot of back and forth walking. I guess all that walking took care of all the sugar we ate. :>)

All of us kids were members of the gymnastics club. The moms had to sew our costumes. Which consisted of a blue pair of shorts with elastic in the legs (poofie pants), a white sleeveless shirt with our yellow emblem, and a white pleaded skirt. White socks and tennies.
We would do our actual excersizes in our poofie pants, and wore the skirts outside the gym.

My dad and brothers played...of course...soccer...

When I was seven I got my very first own bike. I remember so well when I got it. One Wednesday on our way to swim class, my father stopped at a stranger's house and went upstairs. I was to stay down...a surprise, he said. When I saw that bike being backed out of the door, I was so excited!!! From that day on I didn't have to sit on my fathers 'bagagedrager' (carrier)
I felt like a very important person to be riding on my own bike next to my dad.

(In earlier days dad would ride his motor bike with me sittin on the back with my legs in the saddlebags....no helmets, not tied down...just hanging on to dear life)




Around 6th grade or so, there was this couple in our parish who started organizing film matinees for the children in our parish. The idea came to them after they rented a projector and some movies for one of their kids (they had a few) birthdays. Why not rent a larger projector, and use the old church building, and invite everyone?
It was a great success. I do remember us going to see Laurel and Hardy and cowboy movies.

This couple then got an other idea. They wanted to start some kind of cabaret/variety show with/for children.
So after the movies we were given a form for our parents to fill out, to sign us up for this new venture.

Being a bit of a trouble maker (MOI?) in those days my parents jumped at the chance to get me out of their hair a few hours a week, so they signed me up immediately.

And since I played the guitar (well, what is playing...ahem..) I became part of this little band/orchestra called :The Melodicas.

Our theme song was Wein, Weib und Gesang by Johann Straus. A march-like tune which was totally inapropriate for the kind of instruments we had:
One acoustic guitar, 6 or so melodicas, three accordions, and one drumset.

I can still hear this. It sounded aweful, but hey.

Their idea was the perfect way to keep some of us off the street, and learn a few things at the same time. We started performing in nursing homes, and just basically at every function in the parish. We did little skits, we had a magician. We played some South American things (hence the white fluffy blouses)

Of course come December, our fearless leader would dress up as Sinterklaas, and some of us as Zwarte Pieten. I wasn't in this picture, but I was there. The black stuff was impossbile to remove afterwards and for weeks I had raccoon eyes.

I found an old report card from fourth grade. This card went home every week. The first grade was for cathechism, the second for conduct, the third for dilligence.
At the end of the month we would also get grades for Math, Language, History and Geography.

I am only showing the first page here, as my grades went gradually down the drain on the next. :>) Ten being perfect....5 being unacceptable....etc

One time my report card was so bad that I tossed it in a canal on my way home.
Good riddance!
When I got home fifteen minutes later, my report card was already home, mom holding on it it with murder in her eyes. I SAW it fall in the water, drift under the bridge, how it got home, I never found out, it wasn't even wet!! Gotta little lickin' for that one.

Anyway, I digress.

The group picture was taken at the Zoo, when our group spent a weekend at some sanatorium for (what we were told) mothers who were suffering from nervous breakdowns.
It was a place run by nuns (what else) and we spent the night sleeping in nun rooms. Tiny sparse
rooms that scared the crap out of me. Thank God I we had to double up, so my girlfriend at that time shared a bed with me.

The point of all this is that I grew a decent amount of respect for this couple. They did everything themselves. She sewed all the costumes, he made all the stage props, rehearsed us till we were blue in the face, wrote his own skits, and was always, always busy. They also had quite a brood at home, and he must have had a real job too. These people were an important part in my life, and which brought along awareness with the less fortunate, and of hard work, and most of all of music and laughter.

Back home us kids were never bored either. We had a basement where we performed skits and entire musicals. We built rafts and meandered through the canals. We fished. We caught pollywogs, stickelbaers, and waterfleas with little homemade nets. We would put our newfound pets in glass jars and hid them under our beds, until mom would shreek in horror after finding a bunch of little froggies jumping around the room.
We climbed and fell out of trees, we played doctor in the basement (oh yes we did!)

We organised garden festivals, with games and icecream self made skirts of crepe paper, egg runs, sack races.

We collected rosehips and made god aweful jam, we collected ladybugs and jammed them in matchboxes, we collected spiders the same way. We played a miriad of games we invented ourselves, like girl catcher. We encouraged our friend Kareltje who had Down syndrome, to step in dog poop, or we would tie him to a lightpole and made him try to catch us. We did not do this out of malice, he loved playing with us, even though, in hindsight, we did take advantage of the guy. But...he was part of the group, he loved us all, and he loved my sister the best. :>)
And he always maintained that one day he would marry her.

We went from the hopscotch era to the jump rope era, to the marbles era to the spinning tops era to the kite era. Explanation: One person would start to jump rope and we ALL started jumping rope, and would for days...until someone started with something else.

We had a marvelous youth in that street. Something I'll be forever grateful for. Our parents made sure we ate well, learned well, played well, we always looks neat and clean, we were lucky to be able to go on vacation for two weeks a year. Our parents kept their problems to themselves, at least mine did.
This gave us a safe and happy childhood.

Those were the days.....what happened? Huh?

SGMKJ!

Rainy Sunday in Georgia

It has been a busy week. Not only have I been preoccupied with pulling together the story of my youth for a website of my old neighborhood, I have also been helping Wheelie come to grips with finding some of his old friends via an online search.
He wasn't much for digging up the past, you see. But for some reason he got the bug all of a sudden. Maybe after all these years of watching me finding my old friends, and how much I enjoy just reliving and recalling my younger days, he got the itch himself)

He was particularly interested in finding some of the 'kids' he took under his wing back in the days when he ran a small record store in Berkeley, when he was freshly married, just got out of the army (he was stationed in Germany).
There was a group of hoodlums who would hang out in front of his store, drinking beer, getting blasted and punching people out.
Wheelie got tired of that quickly and made the decision to invite these kids to his house and get rowdy there instead. So he could keep an eye on them, and basically steer them away from going down the wrong side of the fork in the road.

Some of those kids ended up living with him off and on, but basically they became a group of friends. Wheelie still talks about those "wild" beach parties he would organize. He had a few dozen pictures from those days, and it looks like they had fun there. To me these people don't much look like hoodlums though. The beer aside, they look like clean cut college kids to me. This was early 1960's.

Anyway, he thought that the safest bet was to find this one couple that seemed destined for a long relationship. It's the couple sitting on the sand on the right, Marcia and David.

Since he kind of figured he knew where they lived, he went and searched on the web via several 'search' websites.
Low and behold, he found them. Still married, still in the same place they settled down. With grown kids, grand kids, and from the sound of it, still pretty darn happy.

Something seems to have loosened up in Wheelie. He began writing. It's difficult for him to do (typing) since he only uses one finger, and most of the time his hand shakes so much it takes him a minute just to hit the correct key. So it's quite an effort.

But he managed to get a few emails off, with wonderful results.

Since he's afraid to send attachments (don't ask, I don't understand either) I went and scanned and enlarged all those beach pictures and sent them out snail mail yesterday.

In the meantime, I was tossing around in boxes of pictures for my own story, and trying to recall names and stories. Feel free to read it, but I'm afraid it's in Dutch, ha ha.

I will re-write it in English and hopefully will blog it tomorrow.

So it's Sunday again. Boo-boo is taking her nap. Sunday is a short day, the restaurant only being open for brunch. Tomorrow is our regular day off. Tuesday she starts Day Care. She will go there Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so we're still on the hook for the weekend, which is much better than it was. We pick her up around 5 still, so she will still have dinner/bath and go to bed here in the evenings. But at least we have our days back.

Bugs has been talking to an attorney to see how she can get Daddy to give up his parental rights.
He will most likely be in jail for the next five or six years, so she will not see a penny in child support anyway. The attorney costs money (noooo!!!!) We're willing to deep a little further into debt to pay for his retainer.
We all just want this to go away.

Things are looking up, I think....

Perhaps while the roller coaster is going upwards, I might even start to think about a short visit home for my father's 89th birthday. This is in July.

We'll see.....

SGMKJ!

And the hits keep on comin'...........

Today my daughter got off her little ass and got some stuff done!

As of the 19th this month, my little pipsqueak will go to day care three days a week.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She found a new place in town that didn't require a registration fee, had wonderful ladies working, and is just a precious place inside and out.

http://www.brightviewacademy.com/view.html

I am so relieved!

Tomorrow she has a pediatrician appointment to catch Boo up on her shots. Poor baby.

She is also waiting on a call back from a new lawyer, who was recommended to her by one of her friends who is going through the same crap.

My daughter might be a procrastinator, but by George, she did it!

Okay....back to my patio and my book...

SGMKJ!

News flash!

Just checked the local Police and Sheriff's blotter.

They arrested Daddy yesterday, charged him with theft by deception (probably making friends and stealing them blind to get his drugs) and contempt of court - child support.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! About time, it's been since December they had that darn warrant out for him.

I hope that since this is his third arrest, and he probably blew his bail (the bail that was collected by his father's church members to get him out of jail the second arrest), he won't be coming out anytime soon.

Hopefully things will change now. Bugs is calling a new lawyer on Monday to see how she can get Daddy off her back legally; change Boo's last name, and get him out of their lives all together.


I knew there was a reason I felt so light today.

Went shopping for my own Mother's day gifts this morning, treated myself to a VENTE caramel frappuchino, (so there!) meandered through Pier One and Kohls, and took my time grocery shopping.
I dressed up for the occasion, even wore nice earrings, lipstick, painted my toenails and had my teeth in.

Ohhh yeahhhhhhh...............

SGMKJ!

Counting the dead armadillos ...............

The sand is so clean and white, the beach so wide

This was our hotel. our room was behind the round Tiki Bar roof on the left.

Wheelie in his element. In the sun, In the fresh air, a box of peanuts and a beer, and a book.

Home again, home again, jiggety jay!

It didn't take me long to pack last Sunday. When it comes to packing a suitcase I am the bomb.
It was those last minute pesky things that kept us from leaving at ten am. But when we did, the house was clean, the beds changed, the garbage out, the bills paid.

The trip down was a cinch. It's basically a straight shoot from Atlanta to the coast. You'd think it would be boring, but it really wasn't. Not to us.
We packed some of our favorite CDs and just drove on"cruise" at 75-80 all the way. Not a whole lot of traffic either.
Listening to the likes of Hoyt Axton, Brahms, Beethoven, Wes Montgomery, John Mayal and Chopin, we enjoyed inhaling the strong sweet scent of honeysuckle and liguster. At times it was a bit overwhelming, but wonderful just the same.

It was further than I remembered. And 2/3 of the way my body felt like a sore bag of bones. Time to stop and get out.
We had made a pisstop (yes, you heard that right, haha) right before we hit Macon.
However, around Metter we were both pretty sore. So we stopped and got us some lunch, which brought our blood sugars up again, and on we went.

We were surprised to see how much Hilton Head has changed since we were there last. I may be off a year or so, but in 1986 my sister came over with her two boys, and we took them to Orlando (Disney and Seaworld) then drove up the coast to Hilton Head, where we stayed for a few days. Everyone burned to a crisp that summer, with little Bugs sporting blisters on her shoulders and nose, poor thing.

It seems greener, the trees larger, more Spanish moss.
It's truly beautiful there.
Along the main roads they've built wide walk/bike trails, which swirl through the woods and wooden boardwalks over the many ponds.
So lush and clean.
Even though there are a zillion stores and restaurants, you really can't see most of them from the road because they are hiding behind the greenery, which caused a bit of frustration at first.

We arrived at our hotel, checked in, Wheelie promptly rolled onto his bed and didn't get up for hours.

We had a ground level (handicapped accessible) room which happened to be about ten yards from the Tiki Bar.
When we arrived the live band was just finishing up. Thank GOD, I thought, who needs THAT noise all day long.

HA!

Little did we know, but we had LIVE music every damn afternoon and every damn evening!
And it was LOUD!
Mostly one fellow with a guitar, singing pretty much stuff from a fake book. One was better than the other, the fellow in the afternoon was a strummer, the other one played the guitar so it sounded like he played four different instruments.

Anyway, the first day we listened, and enjoyed ourselves. The second day we...nnnnot so much...the rest of our stay we either just left in the afternoon, or we turned on the AC fan to kind of mask the sound.

After day two however, I decided to do something about my attitude and flipped my "annoyed bitch switch" to my "accept and go with the flow" mode.
We were on vacation after all, and I needed to relax and enjoy. Dammit!

That first evening we decided to eat dinner at the attached restaurant. The Grouper. I should have know I hate grouper, ugliest fish alive)
(remember now, still in the "AB mode" here)

We seemed to be the only guests. Hmmm...should have told us something!.
The proprietor showed us to our table (smack in the middle, instead of the ocean view window)
and proceeded to tell us about the $17 dollar all you could eat prime rib or chicken buffet.

We didn't feel like prime rib so we both ordered something chicken from the regular menu.

They were out of chicken.

It was 6 pm.

So Wheelie ordered some kinda stew/pasta dish.

They were out of that too (no chicken).

By this time I wasn't hungry anymore. But Wheelie needed to eat, so we decided on the buffet.

The prime rib looked beyond it's prime, so we skipped that. He didn't want any of the salad stuff, which there was plenty of, and we went straight to the veggies and the chicken (I guess all the chicken went to the buffet) There wasn't anything else, except a large bowl with butter pats and napkins.

I asked the guy if there was any bread. He promised it would be served.
I had to go ask again after ten minutes, since no one bothered to check on us.
Some chick who didn't speak English rushed us a basket of, I guess, herb biscuits. Awful!

We left, we paid, but we told our waiter we weren't happy. He didn't speaka de Inglish either, so I doubt he understood.

Mind you, every evening I would peek into the restaurant and every time the place was empty. What a waste.

On Monday we went for a drive. Me and my absolute lack of direction!! We didn't get very far, so we went back and we decided to scope out the place and the pool and the beach instead.

We noticed a long mat leading onto the beach, except there was no access to it for the chair.
We tried at one point, and the chair got stuck in the gravel/sand and we busted something. Two of the lugs came loose holding the left wheel in place. I tightened them with my fingers as good as I could. Did a better job when we got home and actually used the wrench.

I don't think the mat, which seemed to work well for bicycles, would have worked anyhow. Wheelie aint' the 150 pounds he thinks he is, and it would have been hard to push him. Besides that, the mat ended about ten yards from the "hard sand" so it really was useless.
Bless his little heart, he didn't mind not going onto the beach. He was happy to sit on the patio, reading, drinking a beer and getting a bit of sun.

As for me. I went on little walks. I would go 15 minutes one way, then come back (check on Wheelie) and go back out and go the other way. Perfect plan!

The beaches are just amazing. Every time I went out, it was low tide, and the wide expanse of the beach and the reasonably calm ocean really relaxed me. The weather was great. Not too hot, nice and breezy, some overcast and one spectacular thunderstorm while we happened to be having a splendid dinner at a place called Truffles.

I also ventured in the (empty of guests) pool. The water was a few degrees above freezing. But...after you get in it feels better...at least, that's what this little girl told me. She reminded me of Bugs at that age. A real water bug, always in the pool, jumping, diving, somersaulting.
It was nice to let my vertebraes loosen up in the water.

There are about 240 restaurants on this island, and every day we tried a different place for breakfast or dinner.
Every place we ate (after our first experience) was great. Our favorite being a breakfast place called Stacks. There was a waiter there who had a routine that made us pee our pants laughing.
At first he sounded like one of those smartass waiters when he was taking another table's orders, but when we started actually listening, we realized this guy was hilarious.
I wish I could have recorded his flippy repartee.
Even Wheelie had tears in his eyes from laughing.
The one thing that I recall was he told this old couple next to us after they ordered (which took about 15 minutes): Don't get op, you all stay right there, we'll bring the food out to YOU!

I know.....you had to be there....

He also used the word "commingle" a few times, for some reason that really cracked Wheelie up...

I know.....you had to be there.

I did make a point of telling him that we appreciated his humor, and that he made us feel good.

So basically that's how we spent our days. Me walking on the beach, Wheelie reading or napping and listening to our live entertainment..

"...country roads....."

We meandered through a few little shopping areas, bought a tie dye t shirt for the little squirt. Found a real mall and a Belks and bought ourselves some T shirts and a few frilly things for me (Oh Gawd!!!)

It was SO good to be away from everything. So relaxing and so peaceful.

We tried our damnedest NOT to think about our life in Cartersville. We just went with the frigging flow and really enjoyed ourselves.

The beds at Holiday Inn are the bomb. I guess they now use these pillow top mattresses everywhere, and none of those sleazy velvety blankets and those horrid bedspreads with who-knows-what-kind-of dried-up-fluids on 'em, but nice new white synthetic down comforters and NICE linens. Crisp, clean, whiter than white high threadcount sheets. We slept like babies, except for the last night, when Wheelie could not get comfortable, and something upset my stomach and it took some doing to calm all that down.

As for the "accessible".....sigh.....they almost got it right....ALMOST....

I've said it before....I wish that they would ask a wheelchair bound person to design those bathrooms!!!

Our shower was roll-in...good....but...
The fold down seat was on one side, the faucet and shower out of reach on the opposite sight.

So I "helped" hehe...It felt like we were in a car wash, hosing him down....at least he got his back REALLY clean....

There was no counter space in that bathroom and we had to improvise using the ironing board for our "stuff"

The toilet was on the wrong side (for us) and it took some doing to adjust to the new way to get on the pot. Of course all the grab bars were horizontal (as opposed to vertical so you can actually haul yourself up, or at a 45 degree angle....)

Oh well, we made do, it had been a while since we showered together...

The trip back went well too. We hit Atlanta right before rush hour (on Friday no less!!) and we sailed though at a decent tempo. For those of you who don't know Atlanta, two major freeway "commingle" through town and it's a real bear to drive that part. Always insanely busy, fast, people driving like maniacs.

We got home to a very nice smelling house, and were welcomed by Ms. Boo-boo and her mom.

I kid you not, I think this child grew both in body AND attitude. When I asked Bugs how it "went" she rolled her eyes and slumped her shoulders, and just looked at me. *LOLOL*

Boo is developing her terrible two's attitude. She did learn to say 'thank you' and 'pwease' though, but when I asked how the potty training was going, Bugs answered: I don't have one...

Regarding the "daycare and the other stuff" issues she was supposed to take care of this week....well, we'll talk about that another time. (She did not find a daycare!!)

Needless to say we're babysitting tomorrow. Not a problem. Short day.

For now we're home, we're rested, we're feeling good.
I just balanced my checkbook and we're seriously screwed for the rest of the month, *LOL*
I hope that $250 check from Obama gets here soon.

SGMKJ!

God, I could get used to this!

Thursday already, Our last full day.

Aside from some small blips, we're having a very good time. We both have sunburn, we're out of clean clothes, but hey, we found a mall!

He he.

After breakfast this morning we went to check it out. Thanks to Belks we now have a few more T shirts and shorts, so we won't come home looking like crap.

It's unfortunate that it takes at least a week to get your bearings here. If we were to stay another week (or so) it would be like home.
Dream on kid.
I checked the real estate here...WAYYYYYyyyyyyy too expensive.
But if I ever won the lottery, This would be one of the first places I would check out to buy a house on the beach.

Lovely, lovely, lovely.

SGMKJ!

Waving at y'all from the beach

Believe it or not, but I found a computer I could use for furrreee!

It's Wednesday morning, we just got back from breakfast.
I planted Wheelie on our little patio slathered with sun screen, and his book.

Sofar we haven't ventured out much. It's confusing for me to navigate this place, very complex place. Besides, we were both just cracked from the car trip, and it takes much more participation on my part with help in the bathroom, getting in/out of bed etc. So I am trying to watch my back.

But I have been able to take a few long walks on the beach during low tide, the beach is very wide at that point and you can walk for hours.

We had a wonderful thunderstorm last night. During the day it has been windy but nice and (not too) warm. Just perfect! We just happened to be at dinner in a very nice restaurant with a loverly view of a pond with a wooden boardawalk, threes with Spanish moss and palm trees.
Dinner was superb, the view was amazing, especially with the rain and the lightning.

When I get home, I will try and write down some of the finer points of our trip.

Like when I brushed my teeth with Benadryl. ugh.

Until then.

SGMKJ!

And....we're off!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's 10:30.
The house is clean, the suitcases in the car, all the doors are locked.

We're on our way.

Overcast here, but it looks like the sun is shining on the coast.

Wish me luck

haha

SGMKJ!

It might be a wet one........

Last night when I signed off, we had two different siren systems going off as well as what we call: "The voice of GOD" (a very loud recording that is supposed to be heard at a 5 mile radius)

I checked outside.
Dead quiet.

But I saw the line of thunderclouds coming towards us. It was already dark.

Bugs called me to instruct us to go find a hiding place. Yes, child, we know, we weren't born yesterday, we did hear THE VOICE and THE SIRENS.

Still, I could hear the stress in her voice. She had a restaurant full of patrons, who needed to be herded away from the windows and/or into the bathrooms or the walk-in freezer.

The storm was short and heavy, but we didn't lose anything, no trees, no homes, no electricity.

Of course the energy perked Boo-boo up and I had to get her out of bed, after which she bounced around the house with a large flash light in her hand:
"THUNDER!!!!!!!! BOOM BOOM!!!!!!!

Like mother, like daughter, except this little was was quite excited.
She helped me put the pillows and the quilts in the bathroom, and we kept checking the radar.

As exciting as these little storms are, they are starting to get on my nerves. Especially when Wheelie sits in front of the TV watching Dr. No, not moving, blinking, or seeming disturbed at all.

Oh well.

So here we are Saturday. Boo is once again in nap land, and I am finishing my laundry.

We took a short trip to the store because we were out of milk. That child drinks like it's going out of style.

Funny though, I noticed that a gallon of milk was $1.98 and 1/2 a gallon $2.49!
So I got the gallon, I'll have Bugs take it home tonight.

We also grabbed some snacks for the trip, and I am about ready to open the suitcases and fill them up.

So why do I have the feeling this ain't gonna happen?

SGMKJ!

One more day

I can't wait for tomorrow evening to come around.
We are both SO ready to take our little vacation!!!!!

Boo-boo has officially hit the terrible two's. She has shown a bit of a temper now and then. Especially when Oma says: NO!

She's still 99% sweetie pie though, and very funny, and loving. We love her to death, but it's high time for a little distance. We are hoping that Bugs will use this week to sort a few things out and get her ass in gear regarding daycare.

I haven't packed yet. But I've made my lists. It really is just a matter of throwing our bathing suits and some clothes in our suitcases, and fill a box with snacks.

A while ago I wrote about Wheelie taking a stab at trying to find some old friends.
As I predicted, he found a couple.
He is thrilled! (in his own weird way)

You see, when he was fresh out of the army (stationed in Germany) and had a young family. He ran a record store in Berkeley. There were always some kids hanging around outside there. Not making trouble, but I guess still a bit of a nuisance.
Wheelie took it upon himself to take some of these teens under his wings.
He had some of them live with him for short periods, and he organized trips to the beach, where they partied all night.

He tried to find this particular couple, he found HER name on some reunion website, and since she seemed to live in the place where he thought they ended up in, he emailed her.

He got it right the first time. She and her husband are still in the same place. Living in a rural place in California on 17 acres of land, raised two girls, and two grand kids, and have been together for over 45 years now.

The emails have been flying back and forth, and it surprised me to read Wheelie's hunger for news from everyone they knew.

The last email was from the male part of the equation.

It warmed my heart to read his first sentence:

The last time I spoke to you was 10-20-1981 Marcia had just given birth to our youngest daughter Amanda that same day.I have often thought about you,I have always had a special place in my heart for you.I have always been eternally grateful for the kindness you bestowed upon me when i needed it the most.If it wasn't for you i probably wouldn't have returned to school and finished my education.

I always knew about this part of Wheelie's life, and always wondered like him, whatever became of all these kids.

Hopefully there will be a few more popping up.

It certainly has cheered the old man up a tad.

OOps...tornado sirens are going off...better scoot.

SGMKJ!