One of those weeks...

It has been one of "those" weeks for sure. I fought a hell of a migraine from Thursday until Tuesday. Jack ran out of his pain pills, and the horrible nurse at his doctor's office was in no hurry or in any way concerned about it. So he was in agony for three days. He even went to the ER, the pain was so bad, but because he has a "specialist" they would not help him. Finally he had to threaten them with a lawyer to get results ( he is still on workers comp ) but at least he finally has his medicine. We actually DID contact a lawyer, and in fact Jack meets with him in the morning, to see if he can help us get some results. His job is now talking about trying to put him on disability, and he has still heard nothing about that second surgery he is supposed to have. The doctor office says the insurance company is dragging their feet about approving it, while the insurance company said that the dingbat nurse has not even submitted all the paperwork to them yet! So we are caught in the middle, and decided that having a lawyer would be a good thing right now, to help us navigate what is to come. We are not looking for money or a settlement or anything, we are just looking for proper doctor care and hopefully get him back to work, even though we know he will probably never go back to being a heavy line mechanic anymore. His awesome boss created a position for him though, so if he ever does get to go back, he will have a job, so that is good.

So stress has been high. It sucks to have to watch the person you love most in life in constant agony, and there is not one thing you can do about it. I think that is why my migraine was so vicious, the stress and worry were just getting worse, and so did the migraine.  I actually got what I call reverse tunnel vision for a day or so it was so bad. As a lot of people who have migraines experience, I know one is coming because I get these wavy lines in front of my eyes, kind of like heat shimmers on a hot road...this is my cue to take some meds and do what ever I can to head it off. Only this time I could not get it under control, and the wavy lines were so abundant I could not see straight ahead. All I had was peripheral vision...while tunnel vision is where everything else fades except the center of your field of vision. Ergo, reverse tunnel vision. I could not hardly stand to even look at the computer screen, it would cause a flare up after about ten minutes. I live on my computer, so this part is what bothered me most, sad to say.

If we get an income tax this coming up year, I really need to go and get new glasses. I think that would help a lot.

So yeah, the last few days have been less than fun to say the least.

At least he is no longer in pain, nor am I, and I can SEE, so that is always a good thing.

He is nervous about tomorrows meeting with the lawyer though. Or rather, the investigator, as this is just to see what kind of case we have, what we are looking for, and if they think they can help us. I can not go with him, for reasons I will explain shortly, so I made him a sheet with questions to ask and things to mention. We like to joke that I am the brains of this operation ( that is our marriage ) and he is the brawn, and while it is a joke, as he is very intelligent, I am a pro at handling things like this and they make him a bit nervous.

The reason I am not going is partly because of Alex, I have no where to put her, and she is way to hyper to sit there for a couple of hours quietly while we talk business. The other reason is because we have a new furry family member. Friday, Jack and Alex saw this dog running around in the road. Skinny, ribs showing, skittish. She followed Jack and Alex back to our house from the mailbox up the road at a distance..well, it was Alex she was following. She came in to the yard and would not come near Jack, but she went to Alex and laid down at her feet. I got her some water and some food, which she scarfed. It was obvious she had not had a meal in a while. It is also obvious that she is part Shepherd and part Coyote. (Called a Coydog actually lol ) She lopes and acts like a Coyote, with a shepherd face. She is young, maybe 8 or 9 months old.   Once Alex started petting her, she let Jack and I pet her, and suddenly she was the most friendly thing ever. We coaxed her in the house, and she promptly jumped up on the couch and went to sleep. Not a care in the world. She is Alex's shadow. Follows her everywhere, and whines if she leaves the house or goes to the bathroom without her. She sleeps in the bed with her. We do not know if she used to live in a house, or with people, but she is house trained ( although, from our experience with Wolves, they do not mess in the house usually, they will hold it until they are outside, even if "wild" ) and she acts almost identical to our Tundra wolf, Baby, that we lost two years ago to old age. Jack gave her a bath, and took her to all of our neighbors, and to the two streets on either side of us, to see if she belonged to anyone close by. No one claimed her, but a few said they had seen her in and out of the woods for the last week or so. So, unless we see a missing dog sign with her on it somewhere, we have adopted her. I named her Wiley ( Wile E Coyote lol ) even though it is a girl. It is weird, we feel like she has always been here, and we have only had her for less than a week. The only problem is, we do not know how she will react if we all left. She is not destructive, and she gets along perfectly with Soccer, our Shih Tzu, but she freaks if Alex leaves, even if we are still here. So we worry about leaving her alone just yet. If she WAS with humans before, it has obviously been a while, as you could count all of her bones, so there is a good chance she has abandonment issues. I do not want to come home and find my couch ripped apart or something. She is a BIG dog, even as young as she is, with her paws on my shoulders she is almost as tall as I am, so she could reach counters and my desk and stuff. So we are going to have to ease into that...all of us go out in the yard, or take a short walk, leaving her here, then coming back, to see how she does, and to let her know we WILL come back. I do not think I have ever seen such a loving and trusting dog though, especially one who seemed to be half wild. She is very submissive, and will lay down or stop messing with something if you raise your voice. So she is a bit of a mystery, but she is a good addition to our family. I wonder what she will look like as she fills out and grows up?

She loves to play with Soccer lol.

She is a total sweetheart, so hopefully she will get used to the place and realize that even if we leave, we WILL be coming back, and that we are not leaving her forever.

So yeah. That is the main highlights for this week. I missed my Foodie Friday post last week, due to the migraine, but next up is Stuffed Bell Peppers. They were so good, but we ended up eating them in the dark. We have had really bad storms almost daily here for the last couple of weeks, and right as I took the peppers out of the oven, the power went out for several hours. So we had a candle light dinner lol.

I will work on those pics tomorrow and get the post ready to go for Friday.

I think that sums it up for now. I am sorry for the several day absence, but I was trying to keep my brain from exploding and keep Jack from being in agony. Things should return to normal now!

Have a great Thursday!

Mouse Update 4..and stuff...

I am pleased to announce that the mouse has left the house!!! Unfortunately he did not survive the trip, so sorry for anyone pulling for the mouse, but YAY the damn thing is gone!

I have been very productive today. I tore my kitchen/power place ( The dining area of my kitchen is MY spot, where my computer and bookshelves and stuff are ) apart since the mouse had been wreaking havoc all over the place and deep cleaned it, swept and mopped it very well, and restrained myself from rearranging my personal space here until this weekend lol. I then started on the living room, getting rid of all the clutter and opening the room up some  ( energy flow wise ) since Jack keeps telling me he feels like the house walls are closing in on him, and I finally figured out what he meant lol.

The energy flow of the house had gone stagnant and needed to be recharged and free flowing again. Chi, if you will. Or Mana or whatever term you use. After I got done cleaning those two rooms I broke out some aromatherapy...I made an air freshener with some sandalwood and vanilla bean oil I had and sprayed it liberally all over and wow it smelled good and felt good. Jack noticed it and commented on it all the second he walked in the door from work, saying it felt much better now. I watched his grumpy attitude he has had the last week melt away over the next hour after he got home.

I made a killer pot of homemade chicken noodle soup, always good for ails ya, which added to the aromatherapy comfort of the house. We watched some TV, managed to have some "alone time" ( Thank you Snow White DVD ) and then watched Bones and Fringe on the telly and he toddled off to bed while I cleaned the kitchen and started making my mental lists for what I need to do tomorrow. Probably finish Alex's room since we worked on it this week and got it manageable. With her 5th birthday on the 15th, I know she will be getting a new bunch of stuff so I have to make room. I also need to weed through my closet in my room and toss about half it's contents. Might as well be indoors making use of the 94 degree weather out there. Stupid warm front.

I also wanted to add that I am going to go through my follower list ( 48 of you now through Google yay! ) and check out those I have not had a chance to read yet. So I want to thank everyone for following along as I wander down my path!

I guess that about sums it up for today. I have another post meandering around in my brain but it is still working itself out.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

*Music of the Moment: Wizards in Winter by the Trans Siberian Orchestra*

The Mouse Part 2....and Part 3....

I officially hate mice. And Rats. And all other forms of rodents right now.

If you read my blog, you know about the mouse that has been scampering through the house at night for the last week or so. You also know that I re-named my cat UFC ( Useless Friggin Cat ) because he refused to do anything more than look at it.

Well here are the next 2 parts in my rat nightmare:

Imagine, if you will, a fairly quiet house, just around midnight. Husband is asleep, Alex is almost asleep, and I was sitting here enjoying the near silence as I watched a throng of scary bald clowns invade my Roller Coaster Kingdom park.

Suddenly the silence is shattered by a rattle behind the fridge. See yesterday Jack brought home live traps for the mouse. The kind that are supposed to adhere to the mouse, thus rendering it immobile so you can just run over there, scoop him up, and set him free back in the woods to live out the remainder of his little ratty days.

Pffffffffft.

His back legs got stuck, leaving his front legs to flip him all over the place and make much noise while trying to free his self from the gluey crap. I go wake Jack up, who was less than appreciative I might add, to deal with the mouse.

Pffffffffffft.

After he wanders around trying to clear his sleep impaired brain, he sorta pokes at it with the broom handle trying to pin the trap part down. What this did was hold the trap in one place so the mouse could apply his obviously Herculean strength to get out of the glue and scurry under the fridge. I was not happy. Jack goes back to bed since he had to be up in 4 hours at that time to go to work, and I settle in back here for a while.

A little before 4 this morning I toddle off to bed. Not quite 4 hours later I hear this...sound. To my sleepy brain it sounded like a bag of chips being opened. I laid there and listened for a couple of minutes, but I did not hear it again so I went back to sleep. Ten minutes later I am woken up again by this noise. At this point I am thinking Alex is up and into something, so I get up and check it out. She was sound asleep in her bed. So I thought maybe I was dreaming about it, and flopped back in bed. Well I heard it again as soon as I got settled. I got up, grabbed the flashlight and started looking for the 3 remaining live traps. One of them has not moved. Another one was about 5 feet from where it was placed to begin with, with little mouse hairs stuck to it. Suddenly I heard the noise again and ran to the third one. Sure enough, there he was. His hind feet and ass fur caught in the trap. Again, his front feet make an awful lot of racket when he is trying to free his ass from the trap.

I am trying to figure out what to do because every time I moved or tried to pick the trap up he freaked out, which made ME freak out. I really wanted to catch him alive and let him out you know? But this thing has been gnawing on all kinds of things, and it ran out from under my computer table a couple of nights ago. If that damn mouse chews through a cord on my pc, there will be hell to pay.

I decide to see if Charlie, my cats Daddy Kitty, who is half feral, but has adopted us since our neighbor's moved away and left him, would have a go at him. Circle of Life and shit right?

Pffffffffffffffffffffttttt.

He is as useless as his son.

And I have pics to prove it!

I brought Charlie in, and he ran right over to the food tray...which had the mouse sitting on it, and he starts nomming the leftover BBQ from last night. I stand there with my mouth hanging open. Charlie moved the bowl with his big fat face, and the mouse moved with the trap and Charlie jumped about 3 feet in the air and took off running to the front door.  Had it been open, dude would have been gone lol. So after I stopped laughing and could breathe again, I called him back over to the dish, and the mouse, which Charlie fully acknowledges by SNIFFING IT, and then stuffs his head back into the bowl of BBQ. I was not amused. So Charlie gets done eating and saunters off and I am trying to figure out how to get this mouse out of my farken house.

I decide that I will pick the whole pan up and fling it out the back door, and go retrieve the bowls for food later. I have Alex open the back door and I go to pick the pan up and the mouse finds his strength to haul ass off the pan behind the fridge, trap and all. I can see the trap, so I move the fridge and grab some tongs, really long tongs, because I was going to grab the trap and the mouse and fling it out the back door. I grab the trap, yank it out and go to toss it...and notice the trap is empty. The farken mouse got LOOSE again! So he is under the fridge recovering from several strokes I am sure, and I called Jack and told him I am sorry, I tried the good karma route, tried to save the little shit, but I am done. I am tired and cranky and I did not care if he brought a spring trap, a boa constrictor, or friggin napalm, just GET RID OF IT. Then I told him about Charlie, and his preference of his BBQ than the live mouse, and how mad I was. Then I stood there holding the phone a foot away from my ear because he was laughing to hard and loud I was afraid I would go deaf. Not long after that we hung up and here I am, writing about the mouse from Hell, and the two useless cats.
Here are the pics....

Please ignore the old cookie sheet the cat food bowls are on, my cats are MESSY eaters who love to scatter food all over creation, so the old pan I never used other than to hold some potted plants that had no drain trays, is now holding kitty food messes. Also..Charlie is eating the last spoonful of Jacks awesome BBQ that was leftover from dinner last night.

So here ya go, pics that prove that A: My cats are useless, and B: that Jack's BBQ is SO good that even half wild cats prefer it over a live friggin mouse right next to their face...

Thar last shot is one I got when the mouse tried to get away from Charlie. Why, I don't know, since that was the safest rat in history at that moment, What cat wants a mouse when there is Jack's Famous BBQ???

So there is my story, and I am sure there will be another update before to long. Hope you enjoyed!

*Music of the Moment: Jump by Van Halen*

The Mouse, the Moth and the Snake...

What the hell?!! It is varmint week here in Florida or what??

For starters, I have been plagued by a wood rat in my house for the last few days. I have never knowingly had a mouse in any of my homes before, so this vexes me. He is LOUD, and quick. My cat, who shall forever be known as Useless Friggen Cat, or UFC ( ha ha ) watches the mouse very intently, but can not be bothered to actually MOVE off his fat ass to go chase it or anything lol. Total Garfield moment I swear.

Secondly, I am terrified of Lunar Moths. Scared. to. death. They are great big creepy condoresque dive bombing...things. I have no clue how they reproduce or anything, but there is a massive amount of Lunar Moth Babies ALL OVER THE PLACE outside. Every time I open the door after 5 P.M. they swarm me lol.
Friday night 4 of them got in and flew right in my bedroom. Keep in mind a "baby" Lunar moth is still almost three inches across and about two inches long. So I ran in here ( I was standing by the back door ) and Jack then spent the next 30 minutes chasing them down and getting them out of my room. He tossed them all back outside, alive.

Last but not least, I woke up from a nice dream this morning to the sound of Jack saying " Sweety? Sweety? Wake up babe.." ( I should have known to just burrow under the covers when I heard back to back terms of endearment lol...)

When I opened my eyes...THIS is what I saw:

Yes folks, Jack was standing beside my bed holding a 3 foot long oak snake. After I stood up on the floor on the opposite side of the bed, I asked him wtf was he bringing a snake in the house for. He said as he was working on his project that he saw something move on the cheery tree we had to cut down a couple months ago because it was at risk of falling on the house, saw it was a young snake and was concerned because it was just after dawn and cold out...not a time when snakes crawl around. So he went and checked it out, and figured it's den was disturbed so it was looking for somewhere to hide. Of course he had to come share lol.

So I am covered in woodland creatures this week lol.

Other than that, it has been an awesome week. The temps were down in the upper 50's at night, and a tolerable low 80's during the day, meaning I got to open the house up for a whole week! I did some cleaning and cooked some good meals and recharged my batteries lol. I had to turn the air back on tonight because it was hot and super muggy again, with rain moving back in until the coming weekend. But the week was enough to tide me over until the days and nights are cool all the time!

The "project" Jack was working on was a drop screen cover for the back door. There is no screen door on the back, and I like to have it open, but flies and bugs get in and I hate that. A fly will drive me INSANE in a heartbeat. So he spent all this morning taking the extra screen he had left over after repairing some of the windows on the house and sewed a lot of them together and attached it to the inside of the door frame, and tied weights to the bottom to keep it closed. So now I have a screen panel on the back door so I can have it open and not have to worry about critters coming in! He spent hours on it and I was thrilled! So very sweet of him!

He smoked another ham Saturday after he got off work ( he had to work half a day, usually he is off on weekends but his boss has been ill this week ) and it was just as good as the one last week. He is the grill and smoker king let me tell you lol. Today he made the leftovers into BBQ, just like last week, for the race, and it was even better than last week! If this is the typical weekend menu, I am ok with that lol. It was divine!

We watched the race, but I got bored, the two people I really like were not driving well at all today, and the guy Jack likes blew an engine about halfway into the race, so I got up and started cleaning a little. Washed some clothes, worked on Alex's room some ( and I am still alive to tell you about it yay! ) and little stuff like dishes and what not.

Later, Jack and I were talking, ( I swear we have talked more this weekend than we have in a couple of months lol. ) and he volunteered to start walking with me again. I used to walk every afternoon after he got home from work, but a woman went missing from near here and was eventually found murdered, and even though they caught the guy, it still freaked me out because there were a couple of other incidents not to far from here, so I did not want to walk alone. We talked about this today and he agreed to start walking with me which makes me SO happy! We both need to get in better shape, and the road right next to us is very long, dirt, and very beautiful. The first 3 miles of it has NO houses on it, which is the end that is near us. Hence another reason of me being spooked, nothing but woods all around. It is gorgeous though, and I have taken some great pics from that road. I can not wait to start back!

All in all it has been a great week and a awesome weekend. Jack and I spent a lot of quality time together and talked so much. We were really close and that does not get to happen as often as we want due to everyday life getting in the way. Not to mention an almost 5 year old who has to insert herself in the middle of any type of affection lol.

Speaking of Alex, she will be 5 on the 15th of this month, so I have to get started on planning her birthday.

I am also going through an "unplugged" stage. I belonged to a lot of Yahoo Groups, and I left all of them except 3, 2 that I have been a part of for a long time, and one that I own. I have realized a few of the people I had on my FB and other stuff really annoyed the crap out of me and I have either gotten rid of them or I am about to, and with the exception of my blog ( and all of your blogs that I read of course ) and the handful of people I talk to, I just have really wanted to get away from a lot of the things I surrounded myself with before, and focus on me and the things that need attending to in MY life, instead of being so involved and worried about every one else's problems, and making them my own.I know that sounds a bit selfish, but everyone who has talked to me regularly over the last year knows that everything else has always taken precedence over me, and sometimes even my family, and that has to stop. Us first, then everyone else. Since I started doing that, things have gotten a lot better for me, and really well for Jack and myself. There is more to that story, but that is another post all by itself lol.

So there is my week, and what has been going on with me while I have been away. I hope everyone has a great week!

Memoirs of a Crazy Witch; Wolf Totem

I am going to start with my lifelong totem, and the one I am most drawn to, The Wolf.
I first was visited by the Wolf when I was a child, about 6 or 7 years old. We lived on 17 acres of woods and swamp, and it was my playground. I was walking down by the creek one Winter afternoon, and I was standing on the bank, looking down into the water at the little fish swimming in the shallows.

All of the sudden I felt something watching me, and I looked around beside me and behind me, not seeing anything. Thinking it was my imagination I turned back around to look at the fish and just happened to look across the narrow creek to the other side….and there stood a massive dark grey wolf, staring at me with gold eyes. I froze in my tracks. I was startled, but oddly I had no fear. I sensed no danger from him. He kept eye contact with me as he came towards my side of the creek, about 15 foot downstream of me. The logical part of my brain said ” Well I am wolf dinner” but still i had no real fear. I leaned back ( still standing ) against the tree I was near, and just waited. He came to a stop about 5 feet from me and sat down. Just staring at me. I could not look away from his eyes, it was like I was hypnotized. He made a wuffle sound at me, and did a full body shake, and then he raised his front paw….like when a dog is doing a shake trick. I reached out my hand and he put his paw on my hand, wuffled again, and then took off the other way. He ran to the top of the hill, turned and looked at me for a long second, and then dissapeared over the rise of the hill.

When he was gone from sight my brain kicked in and I was shaking in my boots, and I high tailed it home. I did not tell my dad about it, for one because I was afraid he would hunt it, thinking it would hurt me if I saw it again, and two, it seemed like it was very special, and I did not want to share the feelings I was having at that time. He has walked with me ever since. I saw him twice more in the flesh, but his spirit is always with me, and always will be.

After much research, I have learned the Wolf Spirit has these traits:

Intelligence
Cunning
Communication
Friendliness
Loyalty
Generosity
Compassion    

Over the span of my life, The Wolf has guided me through many trials and triumphs. Even now, as I write this passage, he is with me, guiding me, pushing me to open my mind and my heart, and share my life with the outside world.

As I have more than one totem, I have learned that a spirit animal will only present itself to those of us that share the same spirit and traits, and you can have several through out your life. Some stay with you forever, and some only stay long enough for you to learn the lesson they which to teach you, then move on to let something else take it’s place.
They come to us in many different ways, such as the wolf did for me.
In my next few entries I will touch upon my other totem animals: The Dolphin, The Butterfly, and The Owl.

I hope you enjoy them.