This dog of mine just kills me! I cannot take a picture of him without him squinting. I got this especially nice one last night!

Things are different here in the country…you city folk have the big trash trucks of little boys dreams, that come when you aren’t home and take your trash away to some unknown place….out of site…out of mind. Here in the county, we have to make weekly or bi-monthly trips to the smelly, slimey dump.

To make my trash magically disappear, I have to store the trash for the week at my house. (somewhere on my property, where my dogs or other wild animals won’t get into it) Then, I have to load it up into my car, (we ain’t true country folk, cause we don’t owna a farm use vehicle) and then drive it to the dump….with my windows open as to avoid passing out. At the dump…I have to wait in line….yes….in line, so that I can park and then unload my non-countyr vehicle. The only theraputic part of the “unloading” is being able to “huck” my trash into the county trash building…(nothing like fwinging a 30 pound bag of used kitty litter in the air) The floor is usually slimey and wet…and the dump goo sticks to your shoes and then to your floor mats when you get back into the car! JOY! Yes…the dump is truly a life changing experience. Just part of country life.

I guess it could be worse….I could just leave my trash on the patio hoping that someday, someone will come and pick it up, like this guy.

I am sure he hates it when I do this…but I am his mother…who else would do it!??!

This was taken a while ago…but since I haven’t been posting it has never made it to my site. Here it is..in all its glory. It one of my favorites.

On my way back from taking the boy to school today, sitting at the only light I pass on my way home, I saw an elderly man struggling with a bunch of bags from the local grocery store. The wind was particularly bitter this morning and I could see his hands were cold and shaking. He was a little man, neatly dressed, in his stylish, yet insufficient for the weather, Members Only jacket. His hands were shaking from either the cold or old age. I briefly thought of asking him if he wanted a ride. I drove away because I don’t normally offer rides to strangers, however I decided to turn around. I knew he probably had a bit of a walk before he got home, since we were in the business district of town. When I approached him again, still not set on giving him a ride, he had stopped to put his hands in his pockets to warm them up and was trying to turn away from the wind. I knew then I would ask him if he wanted a ride.

I think he was surprised, although probably grateful, I asked. He got in the car and started rambling about the cold. He was carrying what looked like about 5 jugs of bleach, not water, in plastic grocery bags and my first fleeting thought was that he is buying chemicals to dissolve a dead body. He then said how he was doing something he never thought he would have to do, buy water for drinking.

He was difficult to understand, as most of the old timers around here are, mumbling through a thick bramble of a native accent. I didn’t understand about half of what he was saying even though I was intently listening for hints that I should eject him from my car. Although he was clean shaven and neatly dressed, there was a funk about him when he got in the car. Not quite describable, not of urine or alcohol or smoke, as many people around here do smell, just an unpleasant smell, truthfully, not much worse than my car. His hair was neatly groomed and cut, probably from social visits to the local friendly barber. His round eyes shone through an abundance of wrinkles. He did have one bad eye. One eye was a worn blue that many elderly people have and the other was a solid pale yellow. It was crusted, like when you wake up with a cold. I focused my attention on the good eye, so I wouldn’t make him feel uncomfortable. I wanted to ask how he lost the eye.

He said he was thankful for the ride and told me where he lived, on the main strip in town, but certainly a nasty walk carrying 5 jugs of water in the cold. On the short drive he rambled again about the cold and how he used to go to school barefoot in weather colder than this because his daddy had to have one more drink. He recounted of how he quit drinking and smoking recently and he did it all in one day because the Lord helped him and how more people ‘round here need to listen more to the Lord. I just listened.

We arrived quickly at his house, a small, run-down house behind one of the larger buildings in town. There were some fragile steps that lead to the front door and a recliner on the porch. He gathered his bags and I asked him his name and he said Roy and blessed me for the ride home.

We went to get hay yesterday, a unfortunate event that happens at least twice a year, and we set a new record for us! Normally, I get about 16 bales of hay on my father-in-laws shortbed Nissan Frontier. Last year, I ran out of hay early…not good….so this year we really wanted to get as much cheap hay as possible. We were able to load up 23 bales of hay on that little truck! You should have seen us driving down the road! Either way…this is what it looked like when we got home.

Dang…its been too long since I posted. After that last lame post, I got a job! It has been a whirlwind since then. I started working because I had too much time and no money and now I have money and no time! (Well, I am paying the bills…I still don’t have much leftover.)

I am working at a call center that is located in my little town. We take calls for an insurance company, WellCare. They do government insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid. I am a trainer for new agents. It keeps me busy. There is alot to know about Medicare, more on that later though.

Devin is enjoying his summer vacation. He did us proud this year at school. He was on Honor Roll and he also made it into the “gifted” program. He is reading like a grown up and his new love is Calvin and Hobbs.

The animals are good, I am expecting a set of unexpected goat babies any day now. I’ll post pictures when they get here. I am hoping for 2 little ones….normally she has one baby, but her last litter (ha!) she had four! I just hope for heathly animals. The babies are unexpected because I gave her to a friend and she gave her back to me pregnant. Even she didn’t know she was preggers.

Enough for now…I’ll get back in the swing of things and post more often now.

It’s National Duran Duran Day! I don’t know which nation would actually be celebrating it or who, and what exactly they would be doing to celebrate it, but somebody thought of it…and it is today. So, get out your big hair, put on those cropped jackets and crank up the tunes. It’s National Duran Duran Day.

Today was the first day of school for Devin. The first day of First grade! We woke up early, got dressed and then came out to watch TV for a while. Last year, he wouldn’t be dressed and actually watching tv until about 7:30, but this time, for some unknown reason, I had him up and dressed and eating breakfast (another first) by 6:55! (yet another first!) We got up at the same time we normally do, I guess we were just better planned this morning.

He had time to watch 2 of his favorite shows, one of which being PeeWee’s playhouse. Normallly, I laugh my ass off watching it with him , but today I am a little irritated because I have the song “Deep in the Heart of Texas” stuck in my head. Cowboy Curtis, a.k.a. Larry (Lawrence) Fishbourne…no really!….was singing during the episode. (my favorite bit from PeeWee right now, is his giant underpants bit) Anyway, we got all ready to go, I put a little note in his lunch bag and off to the bus we went. Early again! ( another first!)

As he was waiting for the bus I realized that he looked so grown up. Maybe it was the new outfit we got for school or his new haircut, but he looked more like a young man than ever this morning. Quite handsome too, if I might add.

So, I loaded him up on the bus and off he went on a wonderful learning adventure….and out of my hair! I couldn’t resist doing a little dance after the bus pulled away. (far enough that his little friends couldn’t see me) I’m free…I’m free….I’m free! Hooray! I was happy….that is until I noticed the lady driving a car behind the bus laughing at my little dance.

I know that this is just convenience, and probably common sense but it’s still just wrong. This is the kind of thing that should be in Japan right between the beer and popcorn vending machines and the used schoolgirl underwear vending machine.