Still having a problem getting air into my lungs. A good deep cleansing breath. I know I must have some weird virus. THis morning I couged up green gook, YUCK! I have been getting up to make sure that Chemystery has gotten up to get ready for work. I know she is an adult, but she still is my daughter. I am so proud of her and the fact that she finally is on her way to a good career. It took her long enough. Most people starting their careers are 21 or 22, and she is almost 36, but she did it all herself, and for that I am very proud. I digress...I have been getting up at 500 Am and staying up. The birds are barely awake by then, but the quail are. It is so nice watching the morning come alive. The first car start in the neighborhood, the first dog bark, the first bird, the first squirrel. Then there is the first Ferry horn. It is almost 5 miles away, and I hear it loud and clear. I drink my coffee, pack her lunch for her, and get her on her way, then start in with my routine. This morning I got busy in the kitchen, did my laundry and then started in on the story boards for the last two plays I produced. CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN and RUMORS. Got those all put together and ready to take to the Playhouse to post in the lobby.

Bob came over about 500 and we went in to Anacortes to a show. FUNNY!!! it was put on by the Anacortes community theater as a fund raiser. I was mean and made him take me to dinner at Gere a Deli's. Good chow. They have the freshest salad bar I have ever seen. Not a lot of extraneous crap, just good fresh veggies and home made croutons and salad dressing. They use dinner plates for the salad bar instead of those wimpy little onesz that most places use. For the main course I had lasagna. When they brought it to me I could not believe the size of it. It was Huge. I could not even begin to eat it all. It was also delicious. Should have used the wimpy salad plate I guess...

I had a really bad day today. It was Chemystery's first day of work, and she was excited and I was too for her. BUT at 500 am just as she was going out the door, i woke up. I had planned to get up and fix her coffee first. I went back to bed, and she came back in, MOM, DO YOU HAVE JUMPER CABLES? i did, but we couldn't get the cars in the right configuration, to jump start her. So I gave her my keys. MY CAR!!! she's driving my car!!! OHMIGOD! I taught her to drive, I know how scatterbrained she is, and she has my car!!!! As there was nothing to do but go back to bed, I did. and I thought...she is 35 years old now, I taught her to drive when she was 18. Surely she has improved since then. She drives over the mountains in the snow, I know she has to have improved. I gave up worrying and went back to sleep.

I woke up feeling really really bad. I had pains in my chest, and I couldn't breathe, My chest was really really tight. and I ached in every muscle and bone I had. Must be a virus or something. I slept off and on until noon, got up and called triple A to come jump start Donnas car.

I checked the mail and sure enough there was my June retirement pay. However, it has deducted 378.00 from my pay for my medical. Now I am supposed to get free medical until i am 65. So I called the NEX and HR is looking into it. This is so freaking frustrating. I wonder if anyone else is having this many problems. Makes me wonder just who is doing what in NEXCOM...

i just went back and re-read some of my old entries to see if they made any sense. They do to me. But I see that one of my entries got posted twice, hmmm must be making up for the times when blogger lost my original entry.

I am writting this and watching the Memorial Day Concert in Washington DC. what a sniffer!! good thing I have kleenex on my desk. I'll have to watch it tomorrow again, because my dear friend Linda called tonite and we talked for almost an hour. It was WONDERFUL. She retired April 1, and we were comparing notes on our lives since NEXCOM. It appears that all is not well at Headquarters, and neither one of us cares a whole lot any more. There isn't going to be any brain trust to draw from. As I told her, we have just undergone a hostile take-over, and nobody knows it. THere are no more military in charge except the Admiral, and God knows he must be as frustrated as hell, dealing with all of these civilians, and ones that haven't even been with NEXCOM for very long at that. whoo-boy.

As We said to each other tonight. Who cares. I wake up watch the wildlife, watch the morning come alive, work on my many projects, and enjoy myself. NO MORE STRESS, and no more deadlines. I have the rest of my life to finish what I am doing. Dear Lord, make it a long life!! i would like to have as long AFTER NEXCOM as I did IN NEXCOM! 37 years. Shit I'd be 94! I'd outlive my roof!!! maybe I better rethink this...

ok Linda, If you read this...Lola and Rita and Sal are the squirrels. I have no clue which one is which and there may actually be FOUR of them. who cares? I am having fun with them and this, and hope you have fun reading it too. Send it on to anyone you think would enjoy reading it.

I have a whole huge bag of peanuts now. THe squirrels will be well fed. I went into Mt Vernon today, and hit Costco for the peanuts. only 4.00!!! their birdseed wasnt very cheap though, ill stick to what I have. Bob saw Sal the other day and said that if all were in proportion, like Sal and Lola And RIta, his balls would hang to his knees. SO that I need to rename my squirrels. pffttt if they are that well endowed, they do not have any worries about being named girls names. they will remain Lola, Rita and Sal...

I have a whole huge bag of peanuts now. THe squirrels will be well fed. I went into Mt Vernon today, and hit Costco for the peanuts. only 4.00!!! their birdseed wasnt very cheap though, ill stick to what I have. Bob saw Sal the other day and said that if all were in proportion, like Sal and Lola And RIta, his balls would hang to his knees. SO that I need to rename my squirrels. pffttt if they are that well endowed, they do not have any worries about being named girls names. they will remain Lola, Rita and Sal.

THE WAR day 3

The start time was an hour later this morning. Maybe because it was so grey out. The first volley was fired about 730, by Lola of course. She came in screaming...ALRIGHT ALL YOUSE GUYS, LEAVE, IM HERE NOW!! Now mind you there WERE no others. But as soon as she got settled in after opening her big mouth, in runs Rita! well the chase was on, and the fight started. Lola won this battle, and was back at the squirrel feeder. She was entirely in the feeder, with the lid almost shut on her tail, throwing corn and sunflower seeds over her shoulder and out of the feeder. She found what she was looking for...PEANUTS!!! she situates it in her mouth, and runs down the pole, to hide her find. While she was gone, in runs Rita, and goes up the BACK side of the pole, and gets on the big tray, and starts in on the sunflower seeds. Lola comes back, doesnt see Rita and sits there eating corn. MEANWHILE two california Quail arrive on the scene. THey are scratching under the tube feeder, eating the Nyger seed that the goldfinches have spilled. Then along saunters SAL. Nonchalantly looking around for Lola or Rita. Sal then gets under the feeder and starts munching on the spilled corn. Lola looks up, sees Sal, grunts and growls, which causes Rita to look over the edge and see both Sal and Lola, and the skirmish is on...the three of them are chasing each other through the grass, and up the pussy willow bush, and over the feeder, all the while Mariah is watching from the spot she has under the picnic table. She just shakes her head and goes back to sleep. THe quail left when the fight started, and returned later to finish their breakfast. I have heard the quail for years, but they have never come into the yard until today. Must be the cracked corn, or the nyger seed. Or, hmmmmm , could be the wildlife highway that Lola constructed, ya spose?...

THE WAR day 2

At about 530 this morning, Lola came to the feeder. At least she tried. She was behind the wisteria vines, on the fence, and Bandit saw her and started barking. LOUDLY. so she started chattering...LOUDLY, that woke up Rita, who came down the fence line screaming at Lola and Bandit. so we have bandit barking. LOUDLY, Lola chattering LOUDLY and Rita screaming. All of this woke up the Hairy woodpecker who has found the fence post, and started drumming. LOUDLY. At about 700 I said screw it, and got up. By this time Sal had appeared on the scene. Sneakly little devil, he runs along the ground while the other two are sitting on the fence. Guess who gets there first?
By 800, all of the wildlife was awake and feeding. THe Goldfinches have arrived enMasse, and they are pretty, but sing all day, LOUDLY. THe woodpeckers, all drum and PEEK loudly, the doves are fairly quiet, but their wings make a whistle when they land, and that makes noise. THe doves are also horney little rascals. They are paired off right now, and the males are busy trying like hell to make little doves, but the females aint having it!! They chase each other on the roof next door. She moves away about a foot, he puffs up and oooAh oo oo oo;s then scoots over to her, and she slaps his face and moves away. ALL DAY LONG!! I do love Spring though. And I do enjoy watching the birds.

I actually planted about 20 feet of petunias today. Mostly purple and pink, some striped. I had them inside sitting on the computer desk last night, and the aroma permeated the house. I had forgotten how sweet and lovely they smell. I wish I could put them under my bedroom window. Cant though, Mariah and Bandit would trample all over them. Tomorrow I plan on planting the holly bush, and the hydrangia and Lilac bushes. WOW, I'm actually gardening again. I hope I keep up with it. I am having the deck built soon too...

WAR!

War has been officially declared in my back yard! The War between Lola, Rita and Sal. Yep, there are THREE and they all came together at 630 this morning right underneath the feeder. Lola chased Rita and Rita ran into Sal, who then chased Lola, and the three of them screeched and growled and whistled and chattered for almost an hour. they went their separate ways. Lola came back to the feeder and was up on top eating sunflower seeds. Then Rita waltzed back in, and started feeding Under the glass feeder in the grass. Soon Sal was there too, only she was on the squirrel feeder with her head buried in the feeder, digging for more peanuts. When she came up for air, Rita also did, and saw Sal and yelled at her. That made Lola peek over the edge, see them both, and scream, and start chasing all over again. Finally Lola was on the feeder, Sal was on the fence and Rita was sitting on top of Mariah's dog house...all grunting at each other, but all chomping down on sunflower seeds or cracked corn. The peanuts have all been stashed away for winter. Need to get some more. A truce was declared until all mouths were empty then it started all over again. IT was a HOOT watching them all. I Wish I could get close enough to mark them so I would know which one was which, and if there were any MORE lurking in the forest, waiting for an all clear to come Chow-down...

Bob came over today wanting to get the yard roto-tilled. I was planning on digging into the office, but I guess that will wait. I needed to level out the yard where my renters' dogs had dug giant holes. I got the distinct pleasure of raking it all level. My back is compaining loudly about it too. I want him to do along the fence line also, so I can plant along it. I want to get the holly tree, the lilac bush and the hydrangea all planted this year, and I want to replace the camelia bush. We did manage to get the two patches under the old carpet dug up, worked really really well too, all the grass and weeds under it were dead, so all we had was earth and worms. Perfect for gardening. I am going to plant petunias along one side of it, and who knows what else will end up there. I am planning roses, but We'll see. I know THERE WILL BE BULBS COME FALL!

Hector came over and brought me books to choose a deck from. I am going to have a deck this year come Hell or High water. It may not be big, but It will be a deck, or patio. I am looking forward to spending my mornigs in the sun drinking my coffee, and watching the birds. Might even take the laptop out to the deck and write the great american novel. (yeah right!) Say wouldn't it be neat if someone would come out with those really cute little faces like ICQ uses, that you could pop into the story anytime without a lot of putzing? Or little flowers or picture icons...

Rain woke me up this morning. After a week of sunny spring weather, the rain was very welcome. It was a heavy but light rain. I know, HUH? It was a lot of water coming down in little bitty rain drops, OK? I knew what I meant. No wind, which is very unusual for us. What woke me up was the hiss of the rain hitting the alders and the wisteria. Then the birds hit. I filled the feeders with nyger seed yesterday, and within 1/2 hour, the goldfinches had re-discovered it and were back with a vengence. This morning they had doubled in number. The wisteria was full of gold birds. Looked like a spring christmas tree. Noisy too. I'll bet the neighbors are loving it. The hummers are going through the juice like you wouldn't believe. Right in the middle of all of this Lola came in. THen another Lola. so I have to think up another name to call the second Lola, when there are two of them present. I can't tell them apart, and in fact there may even be THREE lola's. There was a smaller one, and the belly fur on it was lighter. Today and yesterday both Lola's were the same size and had orange fur on their bellies. I do not know if their fur changes in the spring, but the other one would not have grown that much in less than a week. So. Lola number two, will now be called Rita. Now mind you, when Rita is there all alone she will be Lola, until Lola number two shows up then it is Rita. confused? so are they. I wish I could get close enough to either collar them, or splash a color on their backs so I could tell them all apart. Both squirrels were on the feeders, and neither of them knew the other was there. When Lola finally saw Rita, she screamed like mad, and Rita ran to the fence. They are soooooo territorial. only sposed to have 1 per hectare, but there must be more, other wise there wouldn't be ANY!! :-)

It is supposed to rain all this week. We need it. Unfortunately Mike didnt get the lawn mowed before it started, so it will be quite high again. I need to get the battery replaced in my mower, so Poor Darling daughter will have something to do when she moves back in. I wouldn't want her bored.

Errant Son was released today at 500 AM. Doesnt seem quite right for them to just shove him out the front door, with no money, no ride, no nothing. I of course picked him up. We had a really nice day, and he did wonders in the garage for me. I can almost even get the car into it!! Never had a car in it before. it's a virgin garage! He went through most of the boxes that were his and pitched out 90 % of it. Fixed him a good dinner, and went to bed. Took him back to the ferry today, God KNOWS he couldnt spend more than one day with MOM. THe Mother who went to visit him every time she could, when no one else would. The Mom that bought him new shoes because his fell off his feet. The Mom that got up at 430 to pick him up at 500. Harumph! Think Id learn wouldnt ya?

Today was another glorious day. Warm and a light breeze blowing through. The birds are starting to fledge too. I had a Fledgling Junco under the feeder, almost stepped on him. His down was still sticking out helter skelter, but he had flight feathers. I bent to pick him up and off he flew to the fence, and waited unti I left then back to the feeder floor. I have mourning doves, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, goldfinches, purple finches, house finches, pine siskins, hummingbirds, juncos, towhees, white crowned sparrows, etc all vying for my affection.

Lola was out bright and early this morning also, and so was little Lola. Big Lola, saw her out of the corner of her eye and started a "growl" while eating her corn. It wasnt loud, but it was loud enough. Little Lola backed up and ran back down the fence and into the woods. Funny!!

My Son gets quite a kick out of me and my wildlife. Just shakes his head.

andy goes back to his mommie tomorrow. I am sure that she will be so glad to get home to him, although I will really miss him. He is such a little Pill, and has this house standing on its ear. He even sleeps with the dog now. I have really corrupted him. Fancy Feast salmon instead of Eukanuba, and science diet instead of kitten Eukanuba. Ah well, he hasnt lost any weight. He scared the crap out of me yesterday, he found a new hiding place, and I thought Tim had let him outside. I was about to panic when I noticed him way under the computer desk. WHEW!!! I could just hear Lynn now!!!

This week is Playhouse week, Things to do there, then next week Darling adorable daughter moves back home. SHe can help me get the office arranged, and go through all of the books and pitch 'em. Then while she is working I can paint, then another room will be done!!! AH... getting there...

Mother's Day! I was called by the ICSO at 9:00 this morning by Errant Son. Hey Mom, Happy Mothers day!!! I'm getting out tomorrow at 500 am can you pick me up? 500 AM!!!! ARE YOU NUTS!!!!!! STAY ANOTHER FEW HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nah, Ill pick you up. Then he will come home and work for me for a day or two, Get the garage cleaned up and then help me move the crap in my office. I need to get my office done, so I can get the Living area cleaned up. Then I can have people over.

It was such a nice day today. THe sun was out, the breeze was cool

I need to get off my Arse and get busy. I need to pack up all of the thousands of books that I have been hauling around all over the world, and get them GONE. Books are a downfall of mine. I was raised to believe that books were your best friends, and should always be treated with respect and honor. You do not get rid of your best friends, at least not on purpose. But I need to. They are taking over my life!!! I read voraciously, and keep every book I have read. Needless to say, they are stacked everywhere. I looked through them the other day, and there are so many, that I dont want to part with, but I NEVER look at them. Guess I need to just be ruthless and go for it. put them into commissary sacks, and take them to the thrift store. Don't look through them, just do it!! then I will have lots more room in my closets, my office, my bedroom and my garage!!! Yes, there are SOME I will keep for reference books, but most will be gone. Maybe I should just call the thrift store and have them come pick them up. I still have my Music Harmony book from my freshman year in college. That was in 1963!!! no words in this book, just notes of music. Page after page of notes. EGADS!!!!! I am sooooo sick.................

Whew!! Finished bedroom number 1! It has all the paint on the walls, the floor vac'ed, the windows washed, all extemporaneous crap out of it, and in the Living Room. Tomorrow Bob will help me move the secretary into the bedroom, and Tim's Rocker, then it will be closed off and kept clean until Chem moves back in again. (or not). I am anxious to get my office done. All the books and book cases out and the new computer desk in. THe walls painted, the windows washed, and the feeders hung at the window; then it will time for my bedroom. That one wont be so hard. The last one will be harder, the livingroom area is huge. Im still not certain what color to paint it, i'm thinking of a light mocha latte color. the base boards will be white. But then Im not sure about that either. If I make the base boards white, then I should make the door moldings white also huh? dang.

I hate decisions like that. I am not a decorator, I know what I like in other peoples houses, but I cant decide what I want in mine. I wish I was really really rich, so I could afford to pay someone to change my house around when ever I get a new bee in my bonnet. fun huh?

Thursday evening I went to a retirement party for Another one of the long time associates who decided to take advantage of the buy-out. It was really nice. All of the retirees were there, it was so nice seeing them again. hardly any of the current associates came, which wasnt such a good thing, but it was really great re-associating myself with the old friends.

When you spend your entire adult life driven by the need and the drive to succeed, you leave behind the innocence of old friends. You forget there was anything out there besides what you see around you. The associates you work with at the current time, you count as your friends, when they or you leave, you lose track of them. I did anyway. It was very good to see some of them again.

I am cat-sitting. My old boss has gone to see her daughter in North Carolina for two weeks, and I am lucky enough to have custody of ANDY for the duration. He is a Ragdoll, pointed and mittened. and what a bundle of energy!!! He is only 9 months old, and full of piss and vinegar. He has the entire household standing on its ear. He has not quite accepted the attentions of the house human yet. (that being me) He hisses and bites, but lays just out of reach and stares at me. He also lies in wait for Loki or Ethel to nonchalantly walk by and then he attacks!! FUNNY!!!

Speaking of funny, I was watching Lola this morning. I had purchased a squirrel feeder and food for her, thinking she would leave the bird feeder alone. Well she did finally discover it, and crawls INTO the feeder, and digs to the bottom of the corn and seeds to get to the peanuts still in the shell. She very carefully adjusts it in the front of her teeth with it sticking out the long way in front, then runs down the post, and up the fence and into the woods, then back again for more. (We must be going to have a hell of a winter if she is storing up already!) On one of these trips she noticed the sunflower seeds on the other feeder tray. She runs up the post,and onto the seed tray and JUMPS over to the sunflower trays. eats and then repeats the whole process. up to the feeder, digs for peanut, runs to woods, runs back up the seed feeder, over to the sunflower tray. etc. I was watching, and all of a sudden she mis-calculated the distance, landed on the glass table, which was covered with hulls, and slid right over the edge. She got up, shook herself off and looked around to make sure nobody saw her, and did it again. FUNNY!!!!

I am going to finish Chemystery's room today, and start on this office. I have to get the crap out of my living room! My quandry is what the hell to do with all of my books!! I have been keeping them for years, and it is really time to purge them. Where should I send them? The jail? the hospital? the Senior center? the Library? The dump? a garage sale? Oh I hate this...