Monday, January 21, 2008

Hillbilly Culture

I'm from Kentucky, so I can poke fun at my in-laws, er, hillbillies. :p



Thar be the revenuers messin' with our free trade.


Thar be the family from the ree-union last summer.


Thar's my new vee-hicle. Ain't she a beaut?

And here's mah brother-in-law. (Not really, but I swear, DH has the same belly!)

Saturday, January 12, 2008

My Sunshine

These are my children. They are also my sunshine. This picture was taken on the California Coast, about midway between San Jose and San Francisco in December 2006.

Of course, the ocean is a source of 'sunshine' for me as well. I feel very connected to the infinite (read into that what you will) there. The waves come in, wash away the pain in my soul and carry it back out to sea ... where it can dissolve and be recycled into something more productive.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

It's Getting Easier

My problem right now is not so much a lack of subject matter to blog...but time to do it.

I go to work today, leaving the house at about 1pm. I say that because it's 12:56 now and I don't think I'll be out the door in 4 minutes. I work at a residential/teaching facility for adults with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. (There are other medical and psychological diagnoses involved, but the first two is what gets them into "our place".)

In my cottage, we have 7 ladies on one side, 8 gentlemen on the other, and share a kitchen and laundry facilities. There are 17 other "cottages" on the facility. They also have a Coffee Shop, Beauty Salon, a gym with swimming pool and various classrooms where the residents can learn everything from making furniture from wood to craft items to independent living skills (setting a table, cooking, etc.) On the whole, it's a great idea.

My trouble comes on days like today. It's like low 20's. I bundle up and go to work. It's my job. Not the most ideal weather to go traipsing about, but I do it. Will it affect my health? Most likely not in the long run. Our residents (or clients, a current "preferred" term) are not so lucky.

One lady has trouble keeping her body temperature up. Her average temp is 95. They have her in several layers of clothing and have a special heater in her room that keeps the room at a minimum of 80 degrees. If her temperature falls under 92, she goes to the hospital. But 9 times out of 10, they will send her out to class in weather like this! While I'm not sure how much she actually gets out of classes and activities, I have to hope that it reaches some part of her. It's certainly better than being in her wheelchair in the living room or in bed all day. Some days, it just seems like the administration is more interested in showing the regulatory agencies that all the residents are out engaged in "meaningful activity", over what is actually good for the resident as a whole.

I better stop there. I can feel my soapbox getting taller and taller.

Happy blogging, y'all!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Need a Heater for the Porch

I needed a heater or like greenhouse enclosure for the back porch. It was so freakin' cold out there today that I could hardly stand to be out there long enough for Shiva to "take care of business"! I read from a friend that the temp was like 15 with a wind chill of -5. I nearly got frostbite about 15 years ago delivering pizza during a blizzard and my fingers do NOT react well to cold.

I'm at the end of two glorious days off from work. My resolutions are going "above average" - but then I purposely made them vague enough so that if I didn't do something every day it wouldn't be a disaster, either.

It's hard to think with a 4-year old perched on your left leg, hanging onto your left arm at 11:39 pm. (She had a nap earlier and is raring to go now. UGH.)

Are any of you familiar with the "Chocolatier" and "Chocolatier 2: Secret Ingredients" games? They are probably my current game addiction. For some reason my version of "2" gets stuck in the Sahara (if you have it, that'll make sense). I've still got half the world to discover on there.

DH is in the background in the kitchen eating a sandwich. Didn't ask if anyone else wanted one. Grrr....

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Here We Go

So I signed up for this Blog 365 thing, for those of us who didn't get enough torture in NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo.

It's been too cold out to spend a lot of time on the back porch of late. But I have a furry new little companion, Shiva, our new puppy. A lady at work is raising her grand-daughter, who wanted to bring home a puppy. My friend said ok, what kind of dog is it? She only wanted it if it was a chihuahua. She heard a male voice on the other end of the phone (the man w/the dog) say it was a full blood. So ok. When her DGD brought home the dog, it was obviously NOT a chihuahua, or as my friend put it, "I HAVE MORE CHIHUAHUA IN ME!" *lol* We're thinking it is at least partly a border collie. She's the cutest little ball of fuzz.

So most of the time she comes out on the back porch with me ... which is good on one point, because then she doesn't have accidents in my house. But it kind of doesn't make for good meditation or thinking time when there's a little ankle-biter running circles around you!

Work has been off the charts stress-wise of late. There will be PLENTY of blog material on that this year, I'm sure.

I actually made some resolutions this year. I may post those tomorrow. So far so good on day 1.