Yellow Rose's Garden

2:17 PM

I hate waiting. Got here early so Tom could get to class on time. Class begins at 1:30 and only ten minutes between. This is pretty twisted, I tell you. Accommodate one of them and the other gets bent out of shape! Actually, Tom was fine, I suppose. I'm just annoyed at having to be here from 1:30PM - 4:30PM

I must admit that it's pretty cool to see one of the Army transport planes taking off.

I brought a book and my notebook. Also brought a small USB stick, my GB one seems to have disappeared. Annoying! I suppose it will turn up when I'm cleaning unless it accidentally got dumped in the trash.

Discovered that I have stuff that should have been transferred to LJ from 2007! Another thing for the clean up bin!

Found a carryon bag that Jessica gave to Tom. Using that instead of my normal bag as it has wheels. Much easier to handle. Also got a nice short cane, it should be easier to handle than my longer one. Decorative paint got peeled off a bit, but Tom can fix that and the cane was less than five bucks, so, that's not so bad.

I think if ticket prices are still this lower come summer, I'll visit my folks and fly into Avoca airport. Car rental would not be extremely expensive then either.

3:13 PM

It's really weird being the only person in a waiting area for a flight out! That and the TSA people keep looking at me funny!

Some part of me wishes I had a laptop for the waiting and the flight. The rest is saying, "Vacation from everything at home, dope!"

Around Christmas time, I think, airlines starting charging extra for checked baggage. Talk about inviting trouble! I suppose, though, that encourages people to carry less and pack lighter. Truth be told, I could easily pack for a weekend with this carry on, possibly, a week. Have to use the backpacking techniques.

3:42PM

Other people arriving.

I'm hoping to get that buggy ride around the historic district and have a girls' day or night out with Liz. Would like to go to the big flea market. Kevin wants to take the kids to the Six Flags in Georgia. I wonder how he will cope with a toddler and preschooler for 4 hours in a car.

3:52PM

I think they are now unlocking what will be my flight.

I read that country singer, Buck Owens, has passed away, he was 76. One of my favorite bits on Hee Haw was when he and Roy Clark would be "pickin' and a grinnin'."

This is the link to an article on his official site http://www.buckowens.com/BUCK%20OWENS%20PASSES%20AWAY.htm 

His passing reminds me of one of the funniest women to ever grace the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, Minnie Pearl. Howddddddddddieeeeeeeeeee. Heh... when that passed your ears you knew were going to be laughing your tail off not long after. She talked about the folks in her hometown of Grinder's Switch and its newspaper, the Grinder's Switch Gazette.

And that reminds me of something else ...  when I lived back in PA there was a gal that lived across the street, who used to sit out on her front porch and yack away with one of the other ladies in the neighborhood. So.. one day Mom and I saw them across the way for their usual gossip and gab fest, one of us said to the other, "The newspaper is in print again." It became code phrase between us.

Not sure where this mental path is wandering today, it just is. I should get my laundry put up, but I'm honestly not sure how long I can stand without my head feeling like it's on a merry-go-round without the rest of me. However, I need to try to get something, anything, done today.

Sims 2 Open For Business is a lot of fun. I had a problem with a couple getting married on a community lot. There's a hack to allow it. So... being sick I was not thinking too straight and reinstalled one of the buildings that had the community wedding arch. So... next thing I know my houses don't want to load, not good. So, I started yanking out anything that had a little yellow warning triangle when the game booted. Those are hacks that will possibly cause massive issues in the game.  So.... um... after I do this... I realize... DUH... I reinstalled something... and ran the clean pack installer. Turns out the way cool building I reinstalled had one of those "extra" career packs that someone created. Now, my Sims 2 has NEVER liked those and should this ever happen again, I know exactly what to do.

My original problem... I was trying to marry off a pair of young adults and .... you got it... the hack that allows that was not in place at the time.

And I'm off to do something or other.

I had planned to be on to RP, but I started watching a movie and crashed out. Must have been tired.

Liz called last night to ask if we made any hurricane provisions. While Rita is not expected bring the heaviest part of the storm this way, we are prepared for a lot of rain, which we get in every tornado season. Some disaster prep people were on TV last night saying there is a possibility that the power could be knocked out from the backlash.

I had memory flashes of something Dad said when I was doing a project for school. He said if his "new" house was ever flooded out that Scranton would be gone and someone would have been building an ark. Mom and Dad live near the Pocono Mountains, snow they get a lot of. I still keep a lot of canned food in my cupboards, it's a throw back to living in PA and CO where winter could be hard. Better laughed at for hording and not go hungry, IMO.

Yesterday was the anniversary of moonmama's birth. I've been thinking about her lately and will probably address my thoughts in a more private venue.

I have several letters to write, both snail and e-mail. I got some of the vacation pictures back. I look like I should be saying moooooooooooooo instead of talking. I swear, they lie... the camera puts on far more than 10 lbs. My cousin, Sharon, is a skinny mini and it made her look a lot bigger than she is.

There's another thing on my to do list. Fill in my journal for the days I was gone. I wrote things down to post, but haven't, yet.

6:07

I finally got around to posting the feedback for War in Concordia. The postman was not kind to my poor book, however, it's in good shape. This means I need one less book to complete my collection of Changeling books.

Hamburger Help for dinner tonight.

Off to play Sims 2 for a while. Need to start dinner around 6:45. That includes possible thaw time. Season finale of Smallville is on at 9 PM.

Later, people!

1. Go To Mapquest.com
2. Click on "Directions"
3. Enter your current address and the address of your childhood home (or at least the town if you don't remember the exact address)
4. Put the time and distance in a post like this.
5. Don't forget to repost these directions. (Not the door to door ones).

Total Est. Time: 26 hours, 13 minutes Total Est. Distance: 1683.70 miles

In reading friends entries, I often come across something that triggers a memory of things gone by. Thankfully, they have been fond ones, so far.

In reading today, I was reminded of standing in line for the midnight movie at a theater in State College, PA. Rocky Horror Picture Show was the in thing in the fall of 1979. I still remember the Pink Panther cartoon they used to precede it. I recall people bringing in bags of props like toilet paper, umbrellas, squirt guns and toast. If you have been to RHPS, I don't need to explain those things. If you haven't been to RHPS, you are probably scratching your head and wondering... the hell? Audience participation is a big part of RHPS, ergo the need for props.

In reading posts by friends that have infants and toddlers or are expecting, I remember those days well. My father-in-law once said that babies are like little catalytic converters. Food in one end and other stuff out the other. I still recall him being flabbergasted when my then three and a half year old spoke in sentences and with rather good grammar for her age. It was only thing I ever put my foot down on, no baby talk. At the time I said it, he thought I was an odd duck, then he listened to the results and was floored.

I remember the waddling days at the end of my own pregnancies. Running to the bathroom became my life's work for weeks. Very annoying. Any of the moms reading probably recall having similar feelings regarding the potty parades and ohhh yes... not being able to see my own feet for months. I remember being in the hospital with a woman that the doctors induced into labor over the Christmas holiday. I have to ask... what were they thinking???!!! It's not like she was in a life or death circumstance and could not have waited the extra day or so. They induced her and yet told another woman that because of the holiday she could not be scheduled for a tubal ligation during the holiday period despite her preplanning to have it done right after delivering. That's some sort of paradox in my opinion.

I often tease Liz that she was in a hurry to get here and hasn't stopped running since she came out. She was the shortest and easiest labor I had.

In reading of the travels and planned travels of friends, I keep telling myself that I really need to put together a travel diary of my own before those memories fade.

I feel tired again, but it's a good tired. I probably should take another dose of vicodin, but other than the pressure like feeling, I'm not in any pain at the moment. I told my husband that the only way to describe what I'm feeling is like a balloon getting heavier as it fills with water. I told him that it feels like whatever fluid drained from the blisters while my leg was elevated is flowing back into it. He's of the mind that such is not possible, something about it not being able to flow back through the joint.. I'm like... ok, so if you're right, then it's rather pointless for me to have my leg propped up to help deflate the blisters. It was one of those... instead of telling him what I was thinking I stared at him like he was nuts. Now, I'm far from being a doctor, but if the fluid can't drain back into the body as he seems to think, then what is the point of me being parked on the couch for like 18 hours of the day? Go figure.

On the good side, I have the bib about half finished.

These are some of the haunts of my childhood and teen years:

Everhart Museum

A Blast from the Past these are pictures of Nay Aug Park, it's being restored and cleaned up.

Pictures of Brooks Mine and the Gravity Railroad car both located in the park near the Everhart Musuem.

Albright Memorial Library