Do You Sea What I Sea?

Tonight it's a seahorse, or maybe a dragon. During the day, it can be a goose in flight if I stand in a position where the bark from this shaggy bark hickory tree creates wings beside the head.

I know I disappeared this week. The cat-bit hand is better albeit still sore and a bit swollen. Lesson learned; don't get between a cat and a dog. 'Nuff said.

Still working on the house; I put the last of the estate sale leftovers on eBay this weekend. My brother and I decided to pack away a few things that are way too good to sell in this depressed market and he'll store them until the economy is a bit better. There's still two great lamps that I'm debating selling or storing but in the meantime, once I get the stuff I've sold packaged and mailed I can get to work on painting and fixing at the house. I still have to catalog the 8 crates of antique Christmas ornaments, but have put that off for a while. Those too might have to be stored rather than giving them away at today's prices. Mom would kick my a$$ if I did that.

Denny has been pulling/scraping up old floor tiles and putting down new this week. By Thursday afternoon he's more than ready for our three day weekend; we get some things done around the trailer but basically we do a lot of relaxing. The weather here has been surprisingly cooperative this month; we are having the coolest July on record and that's just fine with us. Our evenings are spent outside with Patches, watching the hummingbirds do their noisy aerial dogfight over the sweet nectar in our feeder and enjoying the otherwise quiet dusk.

It's not the life we'd choose for ourselves, but for now we just keep on keepin' on (yeah, I'm a 60s kind of gal).

As one of my favorite songs says: "The road is long, with many a winding turn..."

Dog vs Cat vs Me

The cat won. No pictures of my arm, too gross. I was walking Patches at dusk Monday night when a farm dog from across the street from the campground wandered onto the grounds. He's a big old lab, very, very friendly, but Patches didn't know that and went into full cat hissy-fit mode. The dog thought she was playing, started barking and jumping, the cat got a fistful of the dog's nose which turned things ugly. I'm kicking at the dog to make it leave (and he's so pathetically friendly it didn't phase him) and I made the mistake of picking up Patches to run home with her (1000 feet away). DO NOT PICK UP A P*SSED OFF CAT. THEY BITE. A LOT.

Blood running down my arm, I finally chased off the dog and Patches climbed the nearest tree. I thought if I left her there to get Denny Patches would try to jump down from the tree and would hang herself on the leash, so I cajoled and talked and finally just dragged her out of the tree. It seemed to take forever to pull her home. Denny helped clean me up and after going to bed he decided I had to go to the hospital ER to be looked at. So by the time we were done, it was 1:30 in the morning, I had a tetanus shot, was given an antibiotic pill and a prescription for more, was wrapped up like a mummy from my fingers to my elbow and was very sore and tired.

The worst part? A fellow camper was walking by when this happened and he just kept on walking instead of trying to coax the dog away. Maybe he was afraid of dogs, maybe he was afraid of a crazed cat (and woman). Regardless, he better not show his face around me anytime soon.

I'm sore, my hand and arm have been swollen to almost double their size (it's better today) and it's well nigh impossible to pack things you've sold on eBay when your fingers don't bend. Bad timing for working on the house, too. I'm about useless right now and Denny is picking up the slack. And we always said that he picked me so I could push his wheelchair--well, it looks like it's the other way around for the moment.

Highlights

No pictures this week--the highlights are only in my mind.

A hot air balloon landing in the middle of a cornfield mere feet from the roadway as we pass by in the early morning.

A doe leading her triplets (!!!!) out of the woods as we drive by. The tiny spotted fawns cautiously sniffing the air and testing the wet grass were a joy to see.

A cardinal sitting at the end of a branch in the woods, providing a splash of scarlet in a sea of green.

A bluebird in a pile of dead brush, flitting about like a blue exclamation mark.

Early morning fog dampening the morning light, creating silhouettes when the hummingbirds land on the window feeder.

A cookout to meet new in-laws; a strange mixture of old families, broken families, blended families and new families that came together harmoniously.

The pictures in my mind.....

Camptown Ladies Sing This Song....

...Doo Dah, Doo Dah!

Yesterday Denny, Darb, Net and I attended the annual Doo Dah Parade in Columbus, Ohio. The Doo Dah Parade is free to the public, free to participate in and undoubtedly free of restraint. Part gay pride, part political, part pure goofiness, the Doo Dah parade provided just the right distraction from all of the stress of the estate stuff Denny and I are going through. The staging area was near the beautiful Goodale Park, the day was overcast but pleasant and the company wonderful. It was a very different but very enjoyable 4th of July.

The Tiki Car

Uncle Sam in a gyro-thingy mobile.

This lady was part of a swine flu float--and it's a fake butt.

A king dressed entirely in Crown Royal whiskey decanter covers.

Not sure who or what this was supposed to be but he was with several characters from the Mario Brothers games.

Daughters of Net's co-worker. Just too cute.

A working dragon made of Budweiser beer cans.

The obligatory tourist shot in front of Schmidt's Restaurant in German Village in Columbus. A great restaurant with cream puffs the size of two fists.

We too participated in the silliness.

Callie, our granddog, who had to stay home.

Too Much Whine

Ah me; apparently I have been whining too much--people are concerned. Yes, Denny is extremely tired of working on the house as he has the brunt of it while I put "stuff" on eBay. My brother is out of state for a funeral, but I've finally told my sister she HAS to come over to wash and wax the kitchen cabinets as I don't have the time. She might still be doing it whenever we put the house up for sale but hey, I've delegated.

It will all get done and Denny and I will be okay. I promise. But thanks for caring--virtual hugs are almost as good as real ones. Heh.

On the Downhill Side

It's 6AM and it is still dark outside. How strange, when just last week Summer arrived with the longest daylight hours of the year and it was light at 5:30AM. The year is flying by and although Denny and I are getting a lot accomplished, we feel that life is passing us by somewhat since we're grounded here in Ohio.

Denny says he never wants to paint another wall again and we still have the living room, dining room, hallway, kitchen and bathroom to do. Since my mother smoked heavily with all the windows in the house closed, we have to wash all the walls and ceilings, then put at least one coat of stain blocker on before we (or more accurately, Denny) paint. So there is a lot of painting to be done. I have started putting items on eBay and am putting off the daunting task of photographing, cataloging and researching Mom's large collection of antique Christmas ornaments. It's the elephant in the room for me.

The two of us are making an effort to come back to the trailer by 3PM each day to get a breather. Denny finished the new cabinet front for our too-big-for the cabinet flat screen TV and I finally have a TV to watch after two weeks. I truly only wanted to see "So You Think You Can Dance" as that is escapism for me. Music and dance and the human capability of expressing oneself through movement takes me far away for two hours and that's a good thing.

But it's dark outside because we're on the downhill side of the year and we're still here in Ohio. It's not where I thought I'd be.....