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So, here I am back in Maryland. Back to my normal life. Alaska is quickly becoming a distant memory (but it will ALWAYS be a good memory). I am back to work (sigh). Back to seeing the days FLY by, leaving me wondering where the time is going. I know that is a cliche, but it is true.

Today’s image is one I shot this past weekend at our West Virginia place. There was this cool patch of wild daisies growing at the end of our driveway. I’m not of those people to stop and smell the flowers, but I do like to stop and take a closer look to see what kind of critters may be present. I am not sure what this thing is–it may be a cave cricket, which I absolutely hate when full grown (they are ugly and just give me the creeps)–but I thought it made for a neat photo.

Even though the real reason I created this Blog was to document our Alaska trip, which is now over, I kind of enjoy posting stuff. Whether or not anyone will read it remains to be seen.

I figure each day I’ll either pick a photo from my existing collection or take a new picture to post. Since it is pretty early still, I’m using one from my collection. It shows my grandmother (left) and mother (right) on a day trip we took seven years ago to the butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens (Montgomery County, Maryland).

I sort of forgot I had this picture. Until the other day when I had to find old pictures to print for Grandma to help with her therapy. Sadly, Grandma had a stroke back on May 27. She is 94 years old. She is doing okay for someone that age who has suffered from a stroke, though. She can still move her arms and legs, and her face was not disfigured, but she is not able to swallow and has to learn how to talk all over again. She can’t read either, which has always been one of her favorite things to do. She didn’t get around that well before the stroke, and now she gets around even less.

She had been living with my Aunt Kathy for the past seven years. Aunt Kathy has done a fabulous job taking care of her for all those years. But, because of her current condition, unless she improves dramatically, Grandma won’t be going home. She is still in a hospital now, but will soon be moved to an acute care facility.

It was tough to hear about while away in Alaska, which is why I never mentioned it here before. I was quite torn about whether to stay or come home. I knew if Grandma could talk, she’d tell me to stay.

When I did go see her on June 8, she actually said “hi” when I walked into the room. That was the first thing she’d said since the stroke. She’s getting therapy and trying to talk, but it will take time. It is awful to see her like that.

Know what is neat about this picture? I did have a print made to show to Grandma. When she saw it, she smiled and pointed at herself. She was trying hard to say something, but it wouldn’t come out. And I couldn’t think of what she was trying to say. On the way home, it hit me. The shirt she is wearing in the photo is the same shirt she was wearing when I went to see her on Sunday.

Not a very happy post today, but that’s how life is. Keep my Grandma in your thoughts and prayers.

I was wrong again! Daughter Amy pointed out that we flew through Texas on our way to Yellowstone a few years back. So here’s my final revised map.

The states I have yet to set foot in are Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Oklahome, and Rhode Island.

Not a whole lot to say today. I am just starting my second day of “normalcy” now that we’re back at home, back to work, etc. Not that I have ever really been normal…

For something different, I am going to share a joke sent to me by a friend a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

I told myself last week I was going to do a better job posting here. I really want to, but the days just totally get away from me. So now I am playing catch-up.

Too Many Ens (would have been Thursday’s post)

If you read my previous posts, you know I work from home. I have a company-supplied computer and a personal computer, both notebooks, stashed ever-so-cleverly on my perpetually messy desk. My dear hubby rigged up a cool set-up with a switch, which allows me to use a full-size keyboard and monitor for both computers. So both notebooks are tucked out of the way and remain closed 95% of the time. (I would take a picture so you could see what I mean, but my desk is way too messy. I’d be embarrassed.)

Well, until a couple of weeks ago, I had a really crappy keyboard. It did all kinds of goofy stuff, but the thing that made me get rid of it was when the SHIFT+CONTROL and arrow keys wouldn’t work to highlight text for copying, cutting, pasting, formatting, etc. I am a writer. That’s an important function. After putting up with it for a few weeks, I bought a new keyboard. I remember a certain person always telling me, a keyboard is a keyboard. I don’t like ergonomic ones (they look like a wave and the keys are split in the middle) and didn’t really like the wireless one I tried. So I bought a plain, inexpensive keyboard. It cost $9.97…can you guess where I bought it?

It worked okay, except the number two in the top row of numbers and the minus sign didn’t always work. I use Excel a lot, too, so it was sort of a pain. I just had to remember to hit those keys really hard. I adapted. Then Thursday, after having my keyboard for only about a month, if that, I spilled coffee on it. I have NEVER done that before. Not much actually got into the keyboard, but it was enough to make my en key stop working. Well, having already adjusted to the number two and minus sign issue, I figured I could circumvent the en problem, too. I just copied an en and figured I’d paste it into words, as needed, instead of typing the letter. That lasted about five minutes. There are far too many ens in the English language. And I was in the middle of writing a proposal, too!

I had to dismantle my cool switch set-up and revert to using the individual notebook keyboards. Yuck!

The Break (would have been Friday’s post)

I decided not to go to West Virginia this weekend. I needed a break and there are some things around here I have been meaning to do. Making a Roman shade for our WV bedroom is just one of those things. Going to watch my granddaughter, Brianna, play lacrosse is the other thing.

Mike left for WV early, and I ended up working until about 6:30 PM. I guess it was around 8:00 when Amy called. She was at the ER with Brianna, who had fallen off a swing at daycare earlier in the day and broken her arm. It wasn’t a bad break, but it was bad enough to end her lacrosse season. So, no lacrosse game for me in the morning. Maybe I’ll get a chance to sleep in!

Goodbye Don

The dogs woke me up around 7:30 A.M. The bitches. So much for sleeping in!

After puttering around the house a bit, I headed to the store for the last bits of fabric needed for my shade project. While there, I bought a new keyboard! I avoided the really cheap piece of crap I’d bought previously and splurged on one that cost $12.97 instead. (So far, so good. All of the keys seem to be functioning.)

On the drive home, I was flipping through radio stations and came across a weird/wonderful/sad thing. The Don and Mike Show, a local radio talk show, which was also syndicated, that had been on the air since 1985 was ending for good. Apparently yesterday, Friday, April 11, was the last day. They we re-running the farewell broadcast.

I am not a huge fan of talk radio, but I did listen occasionally, back in the day when I commuted to and from work. I didn’t always “get” the humor (it could be sort of stupid, but everyone is different!), but they just seemed like good guys. They had the kind of rapport where you could sit and listen to them chat about stuff for hours. Like the Car Talk guys on NPR.

The farewell show consisted of Don, Mike and the other folks who had worked together over the years, chatting, reminiscing and saying goodbye. They left, one by one, over the course of the show until it was just Don and Mike in the studio, and then it was just Don.

It was the strangest thing. I couldn’t stop listening. I’ve been out of touch and not aware of the controversy or all the ups and downs that had surrounded the show (here’s the Wikipedia link again if you want to read more).

When I got home, I went straight into the house and tuned in to hear the rest of the show. They really were just sitting around talking about old times, past shows, how they’d all become really good friends, why Don was leaving, etc. It was so sad! It was like a funeral, with everyone saying goodbye, encouraging each other to move on, telling each other what they meant to one another, etc.

Like I said before, I wasn’t a huge fan. But I did listen to the show occasionally. I knew some of the history, like the tragic death of Don’s wife, Freda, in 2005. They’ve been on the air forever. Since I graduated from high school, and that was AGES ago! I found the show really touching. Of course, I was crying throughout ’cause I’m a sap like that.

Maybe that’s why the Roman shade project was so much harder than anticipated! I didn’t finish it. Perhaps I’ll get it done tomorrow. For now, its late, and I’m all caught up, so I am going to go to bed. I’ll have more to say tomorrow.

It has been THREE weeks already since I created this blog. At least once a day for the past 21 days, I have thought to myself, “What do I write about on my blog?” I mean, my life is pretty normal. There’s the WV Project — the one where Mike, my hubby, and I are building a house from scratch mostly by ourselves — but that is almost finished. I wish I’d thought of blogging in 2005 when we started the house. The Web updates would have been so much easier.

So, I still don’t know for sure what I should talk about. Or even if I should talk about anything. I mean, this isn’t like a diary where I can reveal my innermost secrets. The whole world could read it. You might read it and there’s a good chance I don’t know you. Or I do know you, and you know me, and you already know all the crap I’d chat about anyway. Sigh…

So, today is Tuesday, April 8. It was just another normal day. I got up a bit later than usual — 7:15, I think — but DID manage to shower before heading to work. In case you don’t know me, I am a regional employee for a Pennsylvania-based clinical research organization. “Regional” in this case means, I work from home. I had to skip my morning cup of coffee because I had to go get some blood drawn. They took like 8 tubes AND I had to pee in a cup, too. The unusual volume is because my primary care doc ordered some tests several weeks ago, which I had never had done, and last week my endocrinologist ordered her own sets of tests. Nothing is wrong, it is just annual check-up time. This morning, I finally bit the bullet and went. I wasn’t avoiding it intentionally. I’ve just either been busy with work or, still being half-asleep, started drinking my morning coffee before remembering I was supposed to be fasting before the blood test.

So, immediately after leaving the blood lab, I went to WaWa for some coffee. Then I came back home to the office and started working. I can’t tell you much about work because it is confidential stuff. It can be quite interesting, and very stressful. Today wasn’t too bad. At least the day passed at a pretty even intensity level, which was low by the way. The week should get more interesting as my Friday proposal deadline approaches.

I quit working around 6:00 and headed downstairs to cook dinner. My culinary creativity is nonexistent this week, so I whipped up something simple — some chicken and rice combo using Zatarain’s rice. It was tasty for a simple meal. After that, since it was Mike’s tun to clean up, I got to update my Web site with the pictures from this past weekend. (It was a crappy weekend by the way. The weather sucked, my luck sucked, I was in a foul mood, and I spent $300 on tires because of a poorly-designed curb at a bank parking lot in Grantsville, Maryland [the edge of nowhere].)

Then I sat down to answer some e-mails and watch American Idol, while simultaneously searching the Internet for some vacation rental property (the location is a secret).

American Idol was pretty lame tonight. This season’s contestants are all pretty good, but they were singing hokey, inspirational songs this week.

It ended and I continued to search for lodging. Then I remembered to call my friend, Carol, who I have known since I was like 8 or 10. We haven’t chatted for a few weeks and need to catch up. Now here it is almost 11:00 PM. My dogs are anxious to go to bed. I guess I am sort of sleepy.

So, now that I have wasted all this space saying not really much of anything, I’ll sign off. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be more inspired. Actually, I know I will be more inspired because I’m going to visit my grandkids. And my daughter, Amy, too. (-:

That was my day. I’m sorry if you read this far waiting to see if anything exciting happened. Better luck next time!