Happy Birthday to you, sonny!

Well, today is my son's Happy Birthday.  He lives in Dallas, Texas so I will not be running by with a cake.  And I am not going to tell you how many candles is on the cake he will have, assuming some one will come up with one.  But I can tell you this, when he was born he was very small and very bald,  but he was also very pretty.  That is assuming a man can be pretty and in my world they can and often are.  He was always a studious little fellow.  He used to grab up the cat and walk around explaining to said cat how the universe came into being.  Maybe you find that behaviour a bit strange?  That was back in Hutchinson, Kansas.
He went off to Garden City to live with his father early on, which was fine.  He excelled in school and drama.  He did move to Colorado to be with me most of his high school years and continued in the drama club until his Junior year, but that is another story.
So I just want to tell the little fellow who is no longer little Happy Birthday and wish him all the best.  I wish I were there!

Well, the day has finally come that marks the end of the trail here on South Road.

Last night the son and his chosen one started hauling their possessions up the stairs, out of the trailer, and the storage shed and packing it into Jerry's van.  And then the trip to Florence and the new house began.  You know, it is kind of sad to see this happen.  Not because I will be alone, because I am a rather solitary person anyway, but rather because it marks the end of my child rearing days.  Started that little chapter in 1962 and now in 20ll I watch the last little fledgling spread his wings and try it solo.  The only difference here is if  the baby bird does not make it successfully, it will plop to the ground and either die from the fall or a cat will come along and eat it.  Not so with the human race.
I have friends that say, "Oh, he will be back."  I do not think they understand.  I do not want them back.  Not because I do not like them.  Nor because I want to live alone.  Or because I finally have a complete room for my eBay stuff.  I want them to succeed.
I want them to know the thrill of coming home at night after a hard day's work and turning their very own key in their very own door.  I want them to know who mows the grass, who washes the dishes, who pays the electric bill, who buys the dog food.  I want them to know the thrill of something called Independence.  While I did not give birth to this little bird, I taught him to walk, I potty trained him, sent him to school, and tried to instill in him a sense of right and wrong, justice and equality, and all the things he needs to know about being kind to the lesser on the planet whether man or beast.  I have tried to lead by example.  They never did catch on to the Recycle thing or the healthy diet, but I can't win them all.  Now we will see how that works out for me!
They did spend last night here, and that is what it was; the last night under Momma's roof.  When they were getting ready to take the load to Florence, Amanda asked me, "Well, how do you feel?  We are leaving.  You will be alone.  Are you going to miss us?"  And I answered as best I could to this girl who has become like a daughter to me.
"As for being alone, we are all alone.  I have been alone all my life.  Sure I will miss you, but this is life and it is time.  You kids need to build your own life.  You can never be on your own here in my house.  You need your own little corner." 
She did assure me that they will come and visit every day.  Well, every day that they work in the shop in Pueblo.  Maybe not every single day, but most of them. Ah, the exhuberance of youth!  Makes me remember back to the day when I was 19 years old and I looked up into a pair of the bluest eyes and knew I would never be alone again.  I was wrong on that day and have been wrong many times since.
And when it gets right down to it, we are alone and we will always be alone.  And such is life!

I am about to go to 10,000 readers.

I just checked to see how many readers I have on this blog and I see 9,999.  That does not mean there are that many people out there who are seperately signed up to read it.  That means my blog has been visited that many times since the inception.  I have about 30 people who read it on a regular basis though not every day, according to my stats.  Then there are those who pop in on occasion.  This is the first month I have had 1000 hits.
So this makes me happy. And happy at my house is good.  The kids are back from Grand Junction and today is moving day.  Hope this works out the way I have it planned.

Ghost Walk on Union Avenue wore my little legs out quickly!

Oh, yes, I love to walk. Last night I got a good one. I went with a friend to the Ghost Walk on Union Avenue. Well, it was really not Union Avenue as we started at the Museum and proceeded to the River Walk and then crossed Union to Victoria and down Victoria to the train station and the Heritage Center. Made 10 stops for reenactments. That is the part that got me. See, I can walk for miles at a brisk pace, but when I do the meandering thing and the stopping and standing, I am shot. Not good.
The Ghost Walk is put on every year at this time and is sponsored by the Domestic Violence Community Task Force which is compromised of Community Representatives and headed up by the YWCA Family Crisis Shelter.
For more info go visit the link I made for you.  Hope it works and it usually does. Google is so good!   click here to visit thier web site.
This was my first time going on this walk, because I am normally not a person who does anything after dark.  See I knew this started at 5:30 and I was sure I would be home before dark, but alas, such was not to be.  So I called the current SWM and told him I would pick him up.  Course he was all eager and what man in his right mind would not be?  So, we embarked on our journey and it got dark and then darker and I began to get antsy.  Finally it was over and all I wanted to do was go home.  Now he wanted to go get a root beer float. I told him I had to get home and shut up the geese so the fox would not eat them.  Know what he said?  "I have seen them geese and a fox would have to be friggin' nuts to go in that pen!  I would not go in that pen!  God himself would not go in that pen!"  But I left him standing on the curb shaking his head and I rushed home to my babies.  Poor guy.  LOL
I have decided that if my current volunteer work comes to an end, which I strongly suspect it will, that I will go work with the YWCA and the Family Crisis Center.  Maybe ACOVA as well.  Guess I could stay home and clean house........or not.  That is women's work.
Ok, got a ton of stuff to do today.  Have to go pack up and pick up a load of stuff for the scholarship fund and bring it home.  And since the kids are moving on Monday I need to fill some boxes with stuff they will need, like silverware, blankets, towels, toilet paper, paper towels, dishes, and cooking oil.  They love grease.
So I am whoooooshing on out of here!  Have a good one.

Oh, I been thwarted in my quest

Daughter called to remind me that I did not update you on what happened. The man I needed to talk to went to Denver today and I missed him. So I left a message and we will see if I get a phone call on Monday. Sure hope so. Maybe it can be resolved with no hard feelings. Maybe not. I emailed him and I was very tactful which was not my first gut reaction. But a few days of me cooling off may be a ploy on his part. We will see.
In the meantime I went off to the Ghost Walk on Union tonight. Went at 5:30, but it was 8:30 when I got home. Kind of fun, but a lot of walking. So I hurried home to the geese and they were very happy to see me and marched right into thier house. Good geese.
But tonight we have the tiniest of Crescent moons and it is blood red. It was so beautiful it almost broke my heart. I do love the moon. When Bret was little and lived far away and missed me I used to tell him that all he had to do was look at the moon and he would always know that I was looking at the same moon. Now I do not think he knows there is a moon.
Ok, I shall go gaze at the moon and eat some peaches and then I am off to bed. Just wanted to let you know that I know nothing.

An ill wind that blows nobody good.

Remember your momma telling you that when you were small? Ever wonder what that means exactly? Well, I figured it out. The ill wind is just the gossip and innuendo that preceeds something. There is an ill wind blowing in my life right now and I intend to stop it this afternoon. For several days now I have been hearing rumors that are upsetting. I do not like that, so this afternoon I shall "beard the lion in his den", so to speak. When I know, you will know. That is a given. You all know I can not keep a secret. What bothers me right now and has for several days is the "He said, she said." When we were kids in school we played a game called "Gossip." (Please remember I grew up in the Bible Belt!) We would set in a row, side by side, the girls and the boys. The teacher would whisper something in the first students ear. This student would in turn whisper to the next student until at last the "secret" was told to the last student who announced what they heard to the class. "Melba is going to France to have a baby." May have started out as "Melvin is going to the dance with a lady", but that was sure not what it ended up. The fun part of this is not knowing who changed which word, only that as innocent as the game was we learned how words can be misconstrued and misinterperted and how those same words that were so innocent can be twisted into something that is very different. I can write a sentence, but since the inflection is not in my voice and you have no idea what I am doing, it will mean something different to whoever reads it. Like this. I say " I am cold." What do you take that to mean? "Lou is cold. She has no heart." or "Lou is cold. She did not pay the heat bill." or "Lou is setting naked in front of the window again." So, before I play the "he said/she said" game I want all the he's and she's in a row so I can look them in the eye. Something about looking people in the eye that makes them accountable. Letters are a piece of cake cause you do not have to hear a rebuttal. Phone is easy, kind of, cause you can slam it down and walk off, but the eye to eye, somebody is going to blink! So that is where I am right now. I will come home from this little meeting either happy or very, very sad and will need to deal with that. Either way, you will get an update this evening or in the morning at the very latest. And right now the cold wind is blowing here at my house and I can definitely feel the nip of fall in the air. After this hot,hot summer, I kind of look forward to the fall. So this is not an ill wind here. Side note here, Do not go to my AIDS Walk site at this time as I am changing something on there. Will let you know when! ;)

Dillon's and King Sooper's rule!

 
 
 
 

While I was in Hutch I needed some things from the local grocery, which is Dillon's. As you know, or at least I do, Dillon's in Kansas is run or owned by the same entity as King Sooper's in Colorado. I went through the self check out and apparently laid my rewards card on the machine and it neglected to jump back in my pocket, so it got left!
My cell phone is one number service which means if you call my home, it rings on my cell if the cell is turned on. So later that evening I received a phone call from a very nice man at Dillon's on 30th Street telling me I had left my card there. At the time I was busy and did not want to run back over so I told him to just toss it and I would get another when I got home. So I had been home 2 days and this came in the mail! What a wonderful man!
It seems these cards keep track of everything I buy and then I get a discount on gas and all kinds of good things. Had I forfeited that card and got a new one I would have lost my points. The man who put this in the mail to me knew that.
So, to the man at Dillon's who mailed this to me, I want to say a big "Thank You!" In my usual bumbling manner I did not even ask his name when he called and I am very sorry for that oversight. I am hoping that whoever runs the office there on 30th will trace the fellow down and give him a big "atta boy".
It is great to know that big corporations like Dillon/King Sooper are looking out for the little old ladies in Colorado. In this day and age so much of business is conducted in a selfish manner. By returning my card I get my rewards which costs them. They paid for the stamp. But they have made a friend for life!
Thank you to the Dillon's Store on 30th Street in Hutchinson, Kansas from loumercer3 in Pueblo, Colorado!