true story

 I am going to tell you a true story

One day a bear was chasing a rabbit through the woods.  

The rabbit hopped fast, but the big, male bear was gaining.

The rabbit saw a tree with a huge hole in the trunk and dashed into it, finding safety.

The bear growled and growled and the rabbit finally said, "Why are you always chasing me?  I have never hurt you."

The bear said, "You are food.  I am hungry.  That is why I chase."

As the rabbit was looking around the hole, he saw an object in the dirt.  He moved the dirt and behold!  There was a lantern!

"Hey." the rabbit yelled.  "there is a lantern in here.  I bet it's a magic lantern.  If you promise not to eat me, I will drag it out."

Now, bear was pretty hungry, but he was also curious.

"I promise.  Bring it out."

The rabbit tugged and pulled the lantern through the opening.  Sitting with bear, the rabbit said, "We should both rub it.  That way we both get wishes."

The bear was an agreeable sort and said, "Whatever."

The bear placed his huge, hairy claw filled paw on one side, and the rabbit placed his dainty, tiny paw on the other side.  And they rubbed.

Poof!  A genie came out!

"Thank you for freeing me from that prison.  I have been trapped in there for 400 years!   You will each get 3 wishes for your kind deed."

Bear went first.

Now, bear was not exactly a good looking guy.  In fact, female bears were repulsed by his appearance and slovenly habits.

"I wish all he bears in this county were females,"  he wished, thinking his horny days would soon be gone.

Poof... .and it was so.

The rabbit said, "I wish I had all the carrots and other foods I ever need and will never go hungry."

Poof.....  and it was so.

The bear thought, then he said, "I wish for all the bears in the country to be female and I am the only male."

Poof....  and it was so.

The rabbit said,  "I wish all my enemies were failures at catching me."

Poof.....  and it was so.

The bear had one more wish.  He thought, then grinned.  "I wish all the bears in the world were female!"  

Poof,..... and it was so.

The genie turned to the rabbit and asked,   "What is your final wish?"

The rabbit grinned and said, "I wish bear here was gay."

Poof....and it was so.

And rabbit hopped happily away.

Peahen Love

   Especially Peace

PHD in PT

Now, all I have to do is do it 

    I finished my physical therapy sessions today.

    They called it graduation day.

    I expected doughnuts (or donuts, Kim) and punch, but  I just got a  t-shirt.

    I am not complaining.  The sessions have helped with the pain in my legs.  I have worked on flexibility, stretching, and strengthening my hamstrings  and calf muscles.

    Now the challenge is to keep doing the exercises! 

    I have 2 different sets, and plan to alternate the sets.  But plans often go astray in my mind, so here's hoping.

    I have to remember that doing them will ease the pain.  That should be motivation enough.

    So no pain means gain.   Huh.

    Looking at my list of 13 tasks, I got ....2 done, 3 half done, and 2 pending.

    Not a great start.

    I also added a couple as I was doing the one I finished.  Go figure.

    Today was a beautiful day.  Warm, a little breezy, sunny......just great for the end of October.

    At our house on Skare Court, we planted 2 sugar maples in front.  Every tall they would turn a brilliant orange and drop a ton of leaves.  We drove passed yesterday a nd the trees are beautiful, and there are a lot of leaves on the ground.

    Sometimes I would rake them into piles and wait for the wind to blow them away.

    We have been in this house 14 years next month.  

    We planted 2 sugar maples in the front, but 1 did not survive.  The survivor is a brilliant orange at the top and turning rapidly.

    I also planted a couple of sugar maples in the lot next door, but they are not big enough to give much color.

    In 14 years maybe they will be.

    And I still won't be picking up leaves.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Our sugar maple

A dirty dozen

 No, I am not. talking about about a movie

    I'm talking about the list I want to get done this week.

    I know!!  It is Tuesday and I just made the list.  Actually9 p.m.  Tuesday, so I won't get anything done today.

    Truthfully, sometimes I channel Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler...  But Terry, what shall I do?  Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

    That has been me for the past couple of days.

    I am tired, but can't sleep. 

    I can nap.  But once I hit the bed, I am like PCA on a fly ball.  Or a Brewer with 2 out and a runner in scoring position

    I just can't sleep.

    Playing spider solitaire doesn't even interest me.

    And I have been eating junk food like crazy.

    I can't wait for it to get dark at 5.......that will really screw me up.

    The house is either too hot or I man freezing...and the temperature doesn't change.

    Around 11 p.m.  I break out in a sweat.  Menopause?  I don't think so.  But hot flashes for sure.

    Ah....so many complaints.  So little time.

    Maybe a glass of pastis will help tonight.  

    After all, it can't hurt.

    Right?

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Why????

 I can't get little things done

    I know!  I have sung this song before!

    But I get so frustrated.

    I have a list of things to do that only take a few minutes or maybe an hour.   I need to just pick one and do it.

    But instead, I complain about it.

    Oh well.

    Was watching the Series tonight and the Brewers had 2 outs then the Rays  walked a batter.  Tampa  brought in their ace reliever.  8 runs later, they got the third out!

    I don't think the Cubs scored 8 2 out runs all season.

    I wonder what gas station in Rochelle will hit the $5 mark for regular first.  Driving to DeKalb today, I noticed a couple of stations were at $4.99.  For regular.

    I made chicken breasts for supper tonight.  Got a recipe on line.  I thought they turned out pretty good.  I had 2 breasts, but we only ate 1.  Jackie is not a chicken person, so I will have it as leftovers and she will have leftover steak.  It all works out.

    That's my life today.  

    Pretty boring, eh?

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace  

Fire, man

 I took care of my burn pile today

    I need to apologize to my neighbors.  It was a smokey afternoon!

    I figured burn off the pile, dig carrots.

    Man, life is not that simple.

    The hose I dragged out to the back as a precaution had a bad end.  I had to unwind all 50 feet of it and use the next three sections of hose to reach the back.

    And when I went to dig carrots, I could not.  The ground is as hard as a rock!

    I decided to put a sprinkler on it for a while to try to soften it.

    I could mot disconnect one hose from another hose.  I was not strong enough.  Is it righty tighty ,lefty loosy or Get a knife and cut the suckers  apart?  I don't remember.

    So I dragged the hose from the back to the side and watered  the garden for an hour.  I will do it again tomorrow and hopefully the ground will soften upon a bit.

    What was nice was sitting out at the back of the yard watching the twigs, pallet and grass burn.  It was very relaxing.

    Saturday night was the annual camp out for the guys from the neighborhood.

    I have not gone in several years, but I told Jackie this year I was going.

    But the person who would normally stay with Jackie could not.  And I bought tickets to the Brett Goldstein show.

    So instead of sitting around a fire with guy friends, having some wine, talking, sharing, caring, enjoying the peace and quiet of a state park, I sat out in my back yard, watching stuff burn.

    It was relaxing.  It was peaceful. But I did not have any wine and I was lonely.

    But at least my hose worked.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

night out

This was a pretty good day 

    Julia and Emily came over and put  our new rug down and took the old one to the garage.  It will probably sit there for a year or 2 before I get rid of it.

    Tonight the girls took the other old one to see Brett Goldstein.

    He was at the Egyptian Theater in DeKalb and the place was sold out.

    I could hear most of what he said, but there were times people were laughing and I had no idea why.  Hearing aids are great, but they do pick up all the sound, not just the person talking.  I really enjoyed the show.

    It was crazy busy in downtown DeKalb!

    NIU played a football game that ended about the time the concert started.

    A lot of people were walking, restaurants looked pretty busy.  It was great to see.

    We ate at the place right across the alley from the Egyptian.  It used to be Hillside Restaurant, but it is  now an Indian fusion type place.  I was undecided between a bison burger and butter chicken, and I decided on the butter chicken.

    I was not disappointed.

    We did not finish eating because the show started at 7 and the place was pretty busy.  We waited about 35 minutes for our food.  We ate some, then Emily hauled it back to her car and put it in the cooler she brought for t hat purpose.

    I had Lisa stay with Jackie and they enjoyed a pizza.

    I did watch the last 4 innings of the Brewers game.....it was pretty exciting.

    And that's a wrap.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

New rug

Old rug

tha dump

We went to The Dump today 

    We ended up getting a new rug for our great room.  Or living room.  Whatever you call it.

    The current rug is showing signs of wear, especially in front of the couch.

    I saw a gorgeous rug that I fell in love with...but it was way too big.  And sold.  But it was beautiful.

    For those of you who don't know, The Dump is a furnishings liquidator. When a business closes, The Dump gets their inventory and then sells it, often at cut rate prices.  They have a store inLombard.  And they are going out of business, so prices have been cut even lower.

    Sometimes the furniture is odd.  One time they had a  line green leather couch and matching chair.  

    A bit too loud for my tastes.

    We also saw another rug that was marked 8 x 10, but it was longer and wider than the other 8 x 10 rugs, considerably longer and wider.

    Anyway, the new rug weighs a ton and a half.  But the old guy working on the dock and I managed to squeeze it into the van.

    Tomorrow I hope the girls come over and we can remove the old rug and unroll the new.

    Then the games begin.  

    For $25, you can predict one of three things:

            When Bth pees on it

            When I spill one it

            When someone else spills on it

    You won't win any money, but you will help pay for it.

    When we moved into our Skare Court house we had a light cream or tan colored rug.  We had people over and one of them came into the kitchen and calmly  said, "We were just talking about what you would use to get red wine stains out of your carpet.  And do you have any?"

    No we didn't and ..... what the hell???

    For years we had a  couch  over that spot.  l don't think it ever came out.

    No red wine on this one.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace