...lovin' every minute of it..

Oh, wow, no, that's

NOT very nice at all, is it???..."polite & soft-spoken"?? Sheesh...

<--- This is our current economy...

I'm not doing much of anything this week, just...well, and there's...ummmm...lemme think...well, and there's....uhhhh...okay! I haven't done shit this week, and it feels good!! I've decided to embrace my God-given slothfulness...for a while, anyway...

Oh!! I DID unload & reload the dishwasher yesterday...(big deal...usually I use plastic stuff, anyway...). Oh, I DID clean Truman's cat box today...woopee...

Actually, what I've been doing a lot of is going through my few leftover memory cells that refused to die in the 80's, and remembering some of the music & groups I liked. And luckily, most of the songs I like are here in my Windows media center music. I know I have, like, 7,000 songs on here, and I don't listen to them enough!

Remember...

Steely Dan..."Hey Nineteen" and "Babylon Sisters"?

Crosby, Stills, & Nash..."Southern Cross"

Murray Head..."One Night in Bangkok"

Right Said Fred..."I'm Too Sexy"

Night Ranger..."When You Close Your Eyes"

Queensryche..."Silent Lucidity"

Boston..."Smokin'"

Aldo Nova..."Fantasy"

Skid Row..."18 and Likin' It"

...one of the best...memories of North Carolina...here

...and it goes on and on...

Today, I made it a point to get to the Jer-Zee on my scooter for a strawberry milkshake & a couple of shredded chicken 'sammidges' before they close for the year! Mmmmmmmm...I'm gonna miss them all winter!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

permanent vacation...

...no, I know, it's not...no matter what it feels like...I'm just enjoying the ride, remember? Kinda like "I'm only here for the beer"...no, I'm not that crass and unfeeling! Come on!

But seriously...are we the only state that has 'Oktoberfests' in the first freakin' week of September?? Yup...we ARE a state of morons!!

These pix are from the Waterfire next to the Oktoberfest in Columbus this weekend...we also were at the Popcorn Festival here in town a lot..especially Saturday night, because...Molly Hatchet was playing!! I went to the Flirting with Disaster concert in the early 80's...they looked better then...'course I'm sure I did, too...gaaahhh..youth is wasted on the young, dontcha know?

Tom shot a raccoon on his front porch at 5:30 am Sunday...I was asleep and didn't even hear him shoot it...I'm a very sound sleeper...plus I was 3 rooms away, in the back of the house (my room!). I guess that's another of the joys of country living, besides being able to pee outside if that's where you are and you feel like it...if you're a guy, anyway!

I really am gonna get the weight back...I didn't do much of anything except eat this weekend, then on the way back to town last night, made Tom stop so I could get a big mac (them too~!!), and I crawled in bed last night with a bunch of good old long-lost friends...a BIG box of donut holes!!

This is what I envision when I think of Molly Hatchet! Now THAT was good times!!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

great weekend!!

Well, seriously, it was a blast at the 25th reunion Saturday night!! Nope, I didn't hang out with most of the people in school, but...who gave a shit at this point? It was great to see all of them again, and catch up with what they're doing now...at least 150 people made it there!!
That picture at the top is our group that went from kindergarten through fifth grade together at the same elementary school...half a block from where I live now! Pisses
me off, though..everybody else gained weight...I freakin' lost it! Tom said I better start eating twice as much as I do now, cuz I look like Karen Carpenter...grrrrr! I'm trying, dammit!! No, it really was a good time...one of the girls in the picture is a microbiologist in California, one of the guys is now a documentary filmmaker in Chicago for National Geographic, one is a corporate lawyer, also in Chicago, and the list goes on...but I'm still here...half a block from the school (sigh). Oh well...somebody has to keep an eye on this town, or it would fade away and disappear!! And, well, Nancy was going to deliver the line about the 10th grade dance, but, nooooooo. She didn't have a freakin chance to...because Tom caught that in my blog before we left!! Dammit! Oh well, it would've been a good idea...and, you know what?? As we were getting ready to leave around 1, we ran into a girl wearing the same exact shirt I was! We got a good laugh out of that, cuz we always used to trade clothes in school, ya know? Then, on the way out the door, I looked at Tom & told him I'm glad we're going, it would just shame Lisa and me if everybody saw us wearing the same outfit!! How humiliating...lol! Remember when we were young, we always thought it was neat to wear the same outfit as your best friend to school? Or, well, maybe that was just our thing. Also on the way to the door, a guy walked by that I had a HUGE crush on in high school, but we'd never even talked, but he turned around and walked to the door with me, and was talking with me the whole time...weird, but neat! Hell, I never even would've thought he knew my name (we didn't exactly hang in the same social hierarchy!). And while we were still in sitting around a table, one of my friends and I were talking and I happened to look over at her husband and Tom...they were having what looked to be a deep conversation...I said "Ann, I think there's a love connection being made over there, ya know?" lol! It DID look like that! But, actually, they'd both been dj's at some of the same radio stations over the years, so they were talking about some of the guys they used to work with (gossiping, in other words!). It turns out that Tom knew almost as many people there as I did! Geez! Toldja he knows everybody! We even went somewhere today...and went past a garbage truck, and he leaned out and said hi to the guy hanging on the back, cuz he knew him! Sheesh! If we tried, we could own this town!!
But, yeah, we went to cookouts over the weekend, ate ice cream, all the obligatory 'holiday stuff'. Then, as you can see, we went wandering in cemetaries, and taking pictures of gravestones...yeah, I know...but we like doing this stuff. Then we went back to his house, and he's repairing some of the antique clocks for that lady's store. He's amazing when it comes to old and antique clocks, he knows all about them...I'm learning what a regulator clock is, a winchester clock, a Jungen (sp?)...he collects clocks and has about 50 (including a lot of cuckoo clocks, all set like a couple minutes apart!) all over his house!
That gravestone up there is the one Tom pointed out and said "Look..there's the grim reaper..."
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

vee-pee pick!!

Sarah Palin...wow! I don't know about anybody else, but I think she is one hell of a good choice for John McCain!! She's one of the type of people that make things happen, and I think she and McCain complement each other! How hard must it have been to raise 5 kids, one with Down's syndrome? Geez, I could
NOT raise 5 kids, be a mayor, then a governor, hunt and fish, ride snowmobiles for the upper-body workout...holy shit, it kicked my ass just to raise Tif and be a produce manager for 10 years! And she was the best
& easiest kid to raise! ONE KID! And, yeah, I know she didn't do all this alone (duh), but she did it, nonetheless, and I admire her more every time I read something new about her! Go look her up, even if it's something on wikipedia (fluff reading! lol).
This is the other side of the backyard, you know, just in case his 7 yr old gets 'bored' riding the train! LOL! He called tonight and they were playing Lego's. And he took me to the antique store downtown the other day and introduced me to the owner, I was just amazed by some of the things she has in there! Tom said he's gonna make sure I get in there with her after her vacation, and I can just look at stuff~! I LOVE antique stuff! But this is the kind of neat stuff we always did! He knows more people than me in town...I tell him, "that's only cuz you're older! when I get that old, I'll know everybody too!"...Naahhh, he used to do the city council thing, and everything!
And, yes, we plan on taking his son & some of his friends to Rogue's Hollow, where it all somewhat started 25 years ago, this October! Now that'll be fun!!
All right, I'm outta here...tomorrow night is the 25th class reunion...Tom's going with me...Tif went out to Maurice's today and got me an outfit and shoes (she has impeccable taste...but also expensive!)...but it's stuff I needed anyway.And Nancy emailed me from work today, and said she is looking SO forward to this..."Don't worry, Libby, I know my line!!" hahaha...I'm good!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...yeah!! Nancy came thru for me...(she thinks it'll be as much fun as i do!)

These are the kind of roses you'll only see on a bush in the country!
And, X, this is for you and Slick who thought a pay phone in the house/bathroom was a lucrative idea...





Is anyone else watching the Democratic convention this week? I have been, just because, you know..."Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." lolol...naaahhh...as far as I know, I'm not enemies with Democrats...as long as they're not sneaky, lying, conniving tree-huggers wanting to take away people's guns because, as you know, we aren't smart enough to have them...oh, wow...maybe radical lefties ARE my enemy, and neither they nor I know it yet! Huh...go figure...the shit that just pops out when you aren't expecting it...
I'm already looking forward to TIVO'ing Friday night's Glenn Beck show! It's gonna be a helluva good show! An hour long show with Ted Nugent! He's damn near the only 'entertainer' I can stand to listen to about poliitics...God knows, Tim Robbins & Susan Sarandon just don't do it for me...they can act...but, I hope nobody hires them as political analysts, or anything...
I did see the part tonight where Barack was 'officially' the 'anointed' Democratic nominee, because he got 2,025 votes. That is a totally historic event!! A black man's first nomination for president! This honestly is a huge "moment in history". I'm not trying to write a history report here, or anything, but, just sit and think on that for a second...[Emancipation Proclamation [January, 1863] only freed those slaves in states that were in rebellion against the Union.] How many people, black or white, ever would've thought that they would be alive when this happened??
Wow! How cool that I picked right now to change channels!! I went past PBS, and there's a neat show titled "The 60's...The Decade That Shaped A Generation' Good stuff...wish I had it on earlier, but that's ok, it's not over til 4 am.
Dang, I'm so totally off the subject! What was the subject, anyway? Oh, ok, that's it...yeah, I am excited to be around in the year that Barack Obama is nominated by the Democratic party...now, mind you, I'm not excited enough to hope that he wins the general election, or anything...I'm not against the fact that he's a young, good looking black guy (that can't dance...ever seen that youtube video? LOL!). I'm just against his SOCIALISTIC ideas of how this country should be run!

I'm looking forward to seeing who McCain picks for vp. Most probably it's gonna be Mitt Romney (for the sake of the economy, he needs to pick him!). But I really hope that Mike "Huckleberry" gets put somewhere in there...he is SO friendly & 'real'.
All right, it's 3:43 AM, & I'm pretty sure I'll hafta get up at around 10...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...back to normal...well, as close as i can..

My 'spare room'...cool, huh?

"I got a room...I got a room with a view..."
--Lou Rawls

Is this a little boy's dream backyard??

Hamburgers, Harvard beets...and freezer pops! *slurp!*

My weekend in the country..gaaaaahhh...sounds like a second grader's report....
But anyway, it was "more fun than a barrel of monkeys". And yeah, that's Tom at the top...I've picked on him since he was 22 for weighing what I did (at 14!)!
His whole entire house out there in the country looks like a museum, honestly, I was awful surprised to see a microwave in the kitchen~!!
But now, that was just a necessity...for the popcorn to watch 'The Red Green Show' with Luke, ([Jerry] springer spaniel, and his 7 yr old boy, who is great. And he also let me know in no uncertain terms, that I might be his Dad's girlfriend, but, I still have cooties...The above picture is part of the bathroom (enormous!)! Of course, he has a pay phone hanging in there, and when I was a little unsure about being able to take a shower because of my balance, Tom promptly picked up that green wooden chair, & put it in the bathtub..."Work for ya now?"lololol! I made sure I said "So you're saying I stink now? (you didn't say that last night, now did you??? hehehehe...joke!)
When I got out, I went to the kitchen, and he was making pumpkin waffles, cuz he said I need vegetables, I don't weigh enough! look who's talkin!
Anyway, I had an amazing time this weekend! Hopefully, I wasn't an obnoxious houseguest, or anything, and I'll get invited back! He is gonna be my date for the 25tth class reunion Aug 30. And we're still arguing about the fact that I say he took me to my 10th grade dance, and he says nope...must've been someone else...nope, I was desperate & dateless, after all...I'll die laughing if (ooooh, maybe I'll get my friend Nancy to walk up and say "Weren't you with Libby at the 10th grade dance??" ...must do some plotting here...)
Okay...more tomorrow...I have a 9:00 AM breakfast appt tomorrow...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

life in general...

...and what it all comes down to is...everything's gonna turn out fine...
got one hand in my pocket, and the other one is smokin a cigarette....


Intersections...

Never mind...I'm just thinking about how when you get to an intersection and there's a 'STOP' sign at it...unless it's only a 3-way stop...there's sometimes a big decision to make, especially if it's about 3:23 AM...very dark, pea-soup fog...E, W, N, S....well, okay, if you're headed south, which I usually was at that time, you've only got 2 or 3 choices. Hard to do, sometimes, if you're kinda lost in the country...So you take the one that looks smooth and easy to navigate. Go down about a quarter of a mile, it turns left or right, and go under the trees..and all of a sudden the branches are grabbing at your car! You decide that's not the way to go, and turn the car around and take the one that looked 'second best'. That one's really good for a really really long time, about 5 miles, then you go around a blind curve, and...those damn trees are there again!! This time there are so many of them, you can't do anything, except make a turn, like a detour, down the road that goes through a cornfield...you're blinded, except straight ahead on the road you're on, and you end up staying on that road, just because it looks easier than any of the others. No blind curves, it just goes straight through the corn. Then when you see the sign for the town you were looking for, you see that it says it's 25 miles away...one more blind curve, and there's a big ol' frikkin' pile of logs and sticks, some with big thorns! But there's a couple of feet at the side where you figure "I can make it through there, this is a little car!" You try, but just as you get started again, you realize there's a really big fat tree growing out of the middle of the road, immediately in front of your car!! And you look and look, but there's absolutely no way you're going to navigate this road! Time to do a U-turn in the middle of the road, thinking all the while "%#$#^^$%&*&~!! I thought this was it!!" Go backwards, all the way back to the 3 way stop you were at at the beginning! Then you turn one more time, thinking the same things you've been thinking forever, it seems like! This is the road that looked 'uncertain' when you first saw it. Time to take a deep breath, and think 'this better be it (at least to get me farther, g*dammit!!)". And you go down that road, and realize it's actually a really fun drive! All kinds of curves, and hills, nothing's the same on this road as it was a half mile ago!...
and you keep going on this road, cuz it's nothing but a good time, and, God knows, after all you've been through on this road, you deserve it!!

BoUnCeS & HoPs! LibbY!

Crybaby bridge again...kiinda...

Okay...T and I were on the phone for about 3 hours last night, (it HAS been about 15 years since we last talked, after all!), but I forgot to even ask him where the bridge was!! He came over for a few hours this afternoon, and I actually remembered to ask him, and he told me 'Rogues Hollow'...I can't believe I forgot that name! As soon as he said it, I remembered! There's a really cool website about it here, and if you get a chance, read the book on there, it's really interesting! And check out the pictures, and you'll see why it was scary over there! The only thing I was wrong about is that there are railroad tracks everywhere over there, if you check out the maps on there, it'll show them EVERYWHERE! And I never realized, it was about 15 minutes away from Massillon, where I was born!
I guess I'm just starting the Halloween season a little bit early, cuz, I'll miss out on seeing all the trick or treaters this year, I'll be busy at the rehearsal dinner!! But, I still wanna go see Hell, MI sometime! I did actually try to talk Tiff & R into making the rehearsal dinner a costume party, but...no luck...
I actually got my biggest surprise email a few days ago from an old friend, not someone from my school! It was from the first woman I ever started emailing with, back in 1998, when all I had was WebTV!! She and I are a lot alike, and got along great from the beginning. She and her husband lived up by Cleveland, and, since I was still driving at the time, we used to drive back and forth to visit each other about once a month for a while! Then they ended up moving a while later, and we lost touch...but then a few days ago, I got a message through my myspace page, and it was from her!!Wow!! That's just so cool!! Now, they've bought a farm, and have a bunch of animals, and she has about 5 or 6 German Shepherd dogs, and 2 little boys, and such. And a pretty horse! When I used to go up there, they had a big house in town, and no animals or kids! Neat!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...ago...

...please, everybody, note the date at the top of one of these Far Side cartoons. Now THOSE were the 'good ol' days' of cartooning!! Yeah, Calvin & Hobbes and Peanuts are great too, but absolutely NOTHING will get a guaranteed belly-laugh out of me like the Far Side!! I'm really glad I bought all the Far Side books I saw in the 80's! Last count, I have 3 great big Far Side Anthologies, & 6 or 7, regular-size books of them beside my bed. Cuz I like to read books that make me laugh before I go to sleep. Last night I was reading "Angela's Ashes"...about halfway through, I realized 'this is some of the most depressing shit I EVER read'...but I'm reading it cuz Mom always talked about how good it was, and it's one of the ones I have from her, and it'd kinda be a dishonor to her memory not to read it, ya know?) But after a couple hours, I rolled over & got a Far Side book, then the movie "Arachnophobia" was on, and I had to watch it again...(it started at 3 am), but I fell asleep a half hour into it.

Okay...I promised...Crybaby Bridge...

We were out driving around one night (I guess summer), and couldn't think of anywhere to go to cause trouble or anything, Tif was at Mom & Dad's for the evening, and T knew how fascinated I was by ghost stories and stuff like that, so all of a sudden he said "Hey, you wanna see something really scary?" & that was even BEFORE Twilight Zone movie! Of course I said yeah! So we left town and started heading northeast. After about a half hour, I said Where are we headed?? And he told me the crybaby bridge story, which I had never heard before (naive!), and I was practically jumping up and down in the car. It was about another 45 minutes away, and we went out on a lonely country road in the middle of woods, and went down a little, like, horsetrail, towards a small suspension bridge...out in the middle of nowhere! How weird is that?? We could see it, but we were a ways away from it, in the middle of the woods. We just sat there in the car with the windows rolled down, and the radio off. And all of a sudden, I did hear what sounded like a baby crying! I don't know, maybe it was just that I was so spooked out by talking about it all the way over, and hearing the legend from him, but, wow! We got out of the car to listen better, and in about 2 minutes, we heard like an old train on some tracks (no tracks anywhere nearby though!)! It sounded like one of those old steam-engine trains, and we could hear the wheels on the tracks, and a train bell (you know, like a big old one, clang, clang! No horn, or anything). That right there scared me even worse than the crybaby thing! I turned around and tried to run to the car, and of course, tripped over the sticks & stuff on the ground (we WERE in the middle of the woods!), and fell promptly on my face! I got up, & looked back, and T was standing there laughing his ASS off at me! However, he WAS walking (actually 'meandering') after me toward the car! Once we were in, he said "Neat! You wanna ride down closer & see the bridge, & look for the tracks?" Ha! Are you kidding me? I want to go home! To my big scary apartment (the first one I rented, with just me & Tif living there, a 2 story apartment, with the locked attic that had a hand painted on the wall with the fingers on fire & the number 13 on the palm of it.)...but it was MY apartment, and MY ghost that I knew!

The crybaby bridge legend is, like I said, there's one in every state, but like in the 1800's a girl had a baby and her parents didn't know. So she gave birth to it by herself out in the woods, and threw it off the bridge so nobody ever knew. But you always heard it cry at night...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...what's gonna smack me next?

I finally caught the beginning of my favorite commercial ever!! It's the one where a lady is interviewing a guy for a job, & it must be an important job, cuz she's looking at his resume, and says 'Oh, I see you're flatulent in three languages,etc, etc,' then she's told by an assistant "Your son, Rip, is on line toot."

Okay, I guess I'm done with the present for awhile (easy to turn your back on it when people are calling you evil. hmmm...I'll go with bad or smartass, but evil?? Don't overestimate me, but never, ever make the mistake of underestimating me, either!)

A lot of people here in town got my email address off the reunion page link, and I've gotten quite a few emails from old friends, and that's been really neat! One from a tough black guy (well, he was in high school...by the way...he's currently a coach in a school!) wrote, and started off the letter with "Libby, Libby, Libby!!" That was hilarious~! Extra hilarious, cuz I was like everybody else in school, kinda scared of them all, and intimidated!

Another was from a guy I was really good friends with since, like, I was 14. I met him when I was walking home from my boyfriend's house at about 4:30 am on a Sunday morning after Kim & I had done one of our regular "We're staying overnight with Denise" and my parents drove us across town, drop us off at Denise's front door, and we'd go in the front door, say hi to Denise & her parents (parents were clueless about our plan), and go out the back door to the carryout that sold us beer without asking for id, then we went to our boyfriends' houses, which were all the way across town in 2 different directions! I did do a helluva lot of walking before I could drive, I guess. So, the next morning when I left Kevin's house (yeah, he was a Kevin too) walking home to meet Kim (& compare notes on the night, of course), I was walking by the radio station and the dj in there sat behind a great big glass wall that faced the street. He saw me walking by the front, and he ran through the building, and caught me at the back door...we talked for a couple minutes, then he said he had to go change the record, come on in...so I did. And we've been friends since! And, I guess this is where I started getting into radio broadcasting...and then Tif ended up volunteering at the local one in town a couple years ago...remember "Tiffany Tuesdays"? And the time they did "laundromat lotto", and went to a laundromat and Tiffany got in a dryer with 40 ping pong balls, and they'd shut the door & let her spin for a few times, then open the door, and have her hand the dj a ping pong ball with a number on it...she did such good shows on there! But it was a volunteer thing, and after the dj moved to Akron, the other guy wasn't as much fun, so she didn't want to do it anymore.

His email brought back all kindsa memories from when we hung out after my first divorce...I'll hafta write about those some other time, like when we went to Crybaby Bridge over by Canton, or when he wanted me to see this cool biker bar he found once when he lived in Winston-Salem...we left here after we ate dinner that night, and drove straight down, went in the bar for an hour or so, then turned around and came right back home!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

8,8,08!!

Letter to the editor, 2nd this month!!


Dear Editor:

I would just like to mention that this summer is the time of a lot of people's class reunions. I'm actually trying to urge as many people to go, if you can! Yeah, maybe it's only the five-year one. Okay, I can understand if you don't care about that one ... but, now it's my 25th reunion ... that's HUGE! My high school years weren't the "dreamiest," most fun, of my life. Most people's weren't, if they're honest about it. But the people in my class of 1983, Marion Harding, have worked SO hard on this reunion, from all across the country! And the more I hear about the people that are coming, the more excited I get about seeing everyone! So. thanks in advance, for everybody's hard work and dedication to the Web site - http://harding 1983.myevent.com
Looking forward to it!!
Libby Stevens Bill
Marion

okay...Tuesday, then!!

Today is pretty much a gray-blue day, outside, anyway.

So, last week, on Sunday night, my freakin' refrigerator quit working! So I called Sears, where it

came from...15 years ago...and they advised that a refrigerator that old really wasn't worth fixing. All salesmen worth anything would say that, I'm quite sure, aren't you? Being a former department manager at a retail store, to NOT have said it would be grounds for instant 'discipline'! To anyone who's never had the pleasure of retail, 'discipline' does NOT involve bondage or anything (come on, guys, focus on story!)...it's just a matter of cutting or scheduling undesirable hours, incredible rudeness, unbelievably tough jobs to do, etc.
So I ordered a new fridge that Monday, had all kinds of problems with having it delivered...it was promised to be here between 3 and 5 pm...got here at 8 pm...also wasn't the fridge I had ordered, but I took it, just cuz I needed one, but told the delivery guy I'd be calling to return it the next day...he just kind of shrugged his shoulders, as if to say "Like I give a shit?"...that's okay, it would've been my attitude by then, too!
So, after a couple days, and talking to the HR dept, it's gonna be replaced as soon as they get the one in that I need.
That was only the first couple days of the week!
The rest of the week was good, but busy. I got my scooter batteries today, from UPS. I saw the mailman up on the porch right after that, & asked him to bring the box inside for me, please? He said "Sure", and brought the box in. Then said, Damn, that's heavy! Where do ya want it? I said Right there is good...my ex said he's coming over to put them in for me tonight. He looked at me, winked, said Good luck with that. What a smartass! I must attract them...
Then, I've actually returned my RSVP for the Saturday night (august 30) get together for my 25th class reunion. That's the only part of it I'm going to, even though the activities last from the football game Friday night, followed by a big bonfire at one guy's house, Saturday golf, & get-together/dance Saturday night, Sunday brunch! WoW! I've had a few calls & emails from some of the people, so I'm actually getting excited about it. Heck, there's already about 150 people committed and already paid to go! We've had a good website up for about a year, and I think that helped a lot!!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Monday, my best day of the week...

TTFN...bunny, bunny...

...oh, shit...RABBIT, RABBIT!

thursday

...Life this week...I'll be back...sometime...

tired droops...tiggurr...TTFN...

Monday nite!!

Today was actually a really good day, for a Monday! Naaaahhhh, Monday is usually my favorite day of the week, now that I'm not going to work...
Anyway, these pictures are just some stuff that caught my eye when I was checking out the huge houses close to the middle of town.
And I know that this is, like, just a pile of rocks, but, yeah, it caught my eye, too.

And this is a different view of that museum. When I was a little kid, I used to think they were called "you-see-ums"! Cuz every summer when we'd drive everywhere, Mom always had Dad stop at every "you-see-um" we went past!! Keep in mind, I was probly 3 or 4 or 5 at the time, so, lots of them were pretty boring to me then...but I'd give my left tit to go back and go through them all now that I'm old enough to appreciate them! Especially the ones in London! Well, I guess we didn't drive there, but you know what I mean...and in Pennsylvania, like Gettysburg, & Philadelphia...and down south, like North Carolina, Georgia ('Jaw-jah', for you, Kim!), Florida, Wyoming, South Dakota, to see Mt Rushmore...all that kinda stuff. That was in "the good old days", when gas didn't cost $4+ a gallon, and I could just stretch out across the backseat & read the whole time we were in the car. Without worrying about having to sit up and wear my seatbelt! I always took a pillow and a big bag of books with me! Usually they were library books that Mom had taken me down to get a couple days before we left, so they were 'new' books to me!
I'm SO glad Mom taught me to love reading almost as much as she did, when I was about 3! I owe her for that as much as anything else! I remember we had a book in our house's library called Gregg Speed Reading...I never read it, cuz I've always read so fast, anyway! And I remember we had an Algebra book, that Dad tried to get me interested in it...I just did the least I could to have him say "Good job, Libby!" That was in 4th grade! I hated math, anyway! I was a "word" person, not a math person! But in high school I took 3 years of geometry, anyway...Yuk! The only thing I remember about that class is the fact that the teacher told us that if we didn't know the answer, say 3, cuz in geometry, that was the most common answer!! So, guess what I always said when I was called on...
Well, I did what I wanted to about the people that picked me up when my scooter's battery ran out. I wrote a letter to the editor of the paper (The Marion Star, which was started by President Harding!) about how nice those people were that picked me up, and that I didn't know their names, but I hoped they read the letter!! And they did print the letter Friday...it's not on the web, but I know it was in the paper Friday, cuz I got emails & phone calls from people that know me in town!
And, actually, it WASN'T cuz it hadn't been plugged in! It still didn't work all weekend...even though I scoured the owner's manual, and pushed the reset button, in case the fuse was blown...and I tried to call the Invacare company, but they were closed til Monday am! Well, it was too hot to go out this weekend, anyway. So I called today & talked to cust svc & a tech guy, and he told me it sounded like I needed a new battery. But I said it was only a year old!! And he said that's as long as they usually last. WHAT?? So, sweet Bro said he wants to replace it for me!! He's great! A battery is $170! And it needs to be replaced once a year?? And the scooter was a thousand dollars! But, ya know what? It's totally worth it, even if it's gonna be me paying for it in the future. And, no, insurance won't cover it, cuz Bro bought it, we didn't go through insurance. Insurance bought my battery-powered wheelchair...I went thru them for that cuz IT was about $6,000! That's better for them to get that, cuz if you get any walking device through them, there's no deductible! Thank God I have this insurance!
Well, it's gettin' late, so, I'm back to my book in the bedroom..it's a Robin Cook book, a total medical mystery...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

hot & sticky...that's Ohio in the summer...

Straight down at the bottom of this hill is where my high school was. The building & all the other stuff, like the football field is still there, but it's now the city's middle school!
This is just (haha) another huge old house that's also right near the center of town...gorgeous!
Okay...let's see how good people's memories are. A long time ago I blogged about when I was like 15, and me & my current boyfriend (at the time) and a bunch of us used to hang out before school & get high in our cars...and one time we saw one of the janitors go into this little building...and one of the bravest guys sneaked over and locked him in! So...this is the building & parking lot & tennis courts!

Ahhhhh...remember when life was nothing but fun, and you never had to think about the consequences? Well, no, I won't go THAT far, but when you're the youngest and the only girl, you get TONS of spoiling!

Mom was the BEST at spoiling me...probably too good, but, hey, I won't ever fault her for that!! Bro was awfully good at it, too...I always used to beg him to let me sleep in his bed, when I was about 4 or 5, and he was staying overnight that night with a friend, he'd always say..."Okay...but just don't pee in my bed!!" Oh my Lord, I just got total goosebumps, cuz I could HEAR him saying it!!! And then he'd laugh in that goofy big Bro way...

Hey, I was just remembering some of the health stuff that I learned at the drs offices last week, and it's some silly stuffr that lots of people should know, but it's not stuff you usually think to ask your doctor...

There's as much calcium in 2% or skim milk as in whole milk (skim.....there oughtta be a damn law against that stuff!!) ...water, with a drop of white paint in it!! However, soy milk isn't what you need to drink to get calcium...there's not much, if any, in that. And, if you're like me, and trying to make sure you get a lot of calcium, my doctor said I'm taking the right amount of calc pills...BUT..she said "You make sure you take one in the day, and one at night...your body can't absorb all the calcium at once!" And, speaking of calcium...the birth control shots they can give you, like one every 4 months, I think (only to women, of course...guys couldn't handle the responsibility of birth control, dontcha know...)...well, those suck the calcium right the hell out of your bones, just like iv steroids do! I have osteopenia...that's like a step or two better than osteoporosis..but I'm 43, have ms, and have smoked since I was 15, I'm skinny, real pale...all the classic signs that you're a good risk for osteo...However, a 22 year old told me awhile ago that she had osteopenia too because of the bc shot, and she said that her doctor told her to drink TONS of milk...obviously, neither friggin one of us listened, huh? Huh...I still smoke too...imagine that. Actually, one of the drs I was at last week said "You know, if anyone quits smoking, that will do more for their health than seeing a million drs for the rest of their life." Then another one said.."If you smoke, you might get cancer...if you smoke menthols, you will get it..." Holy crap...I'm down to about 10 a day now...that's a kick in the ass! ...Alright...outta here!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

busy week ALREADY!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In other business, commissioners:
approved a request from the engineer's office for $1,000 to repair a outlet pipe needing repair in the Grave Creek Ditch. The pipe was discovered when a beaver dam in the ditch was removed. Original funding for the project was approved July 1 for $4,500.

Hello...this is my town...the top two pictures are of one of the little tables Tif went over to Mom's & picked up for me...that's my girl!

The things underneath is the first picture of President Harding that I could find, of Harding & Al Jolson, and a bunch of other people on his front porch...this is the house I grew up behind, and learned to ride my first 2 wheeled bike in the parking lot...it was purple, of course!!

And the article is out of our paper. This refers to Grave Creek! Remember I wrote about working in a great groc store that was built right over Grave Creek...and I had an Indian ghost that lived in my back produce room~! ...a beaver dam, for God's sake!! Do other towns have meetings about a beaver dam?? hahahahahahahaha!!

This week started with a dr appt Monday afternoon with a "woman's dr", if ya know what I mean. But he's really neat! He has you come back and sit in his office & just talk for about a half hour, then you go to a different room for your exam. After that, I left and went across the parking lot to my first dr, who actually prescribed the steroids for me this last time! I went in and met the receptionist that helped me there & told her thanks, then she said she'd tell the dr I was there, she knew he'd want to see me. So in about 5 minutes she came & got me, and the dr gave me a big old hug, and told me I looked really good! Which everybody is always happy to hear...Then he told all the nurses & receptionists how we started to know each other, how he got me to the right dr to find out what was wrong with me (ms)...but it was really great! And he wants me to stop out anytime! Hmmm...maybe he'll give me a job?? hahahahahahaha...

Then yesterday, Boo & her mom came down from Tiffdin & took me up to see my ms dr at Cleveland Clinic, so all that crap's outta the way for another year! She loves it that I got a neuro in Marion! And she's looking forward to working with him! woohoo!! After the appt, we went to McDonalds, and when we went to get in the minivan, I went and got in wrong, and ended up on my stomach, laying across the backseats! With my legs hanging out the door, and we were all just about peeing our pants while they discussed how to get me in, whether to push me from behind, or pull me from the other side...then Boo got the brilliant idea of just leaving my legs hanging out & tying a flag to them!~! God!! What a family I have!! But right when that seemed to be the #1 decision, a black lady walked up to the van, and without a word, she picked me up and sat me correctly in my seat! And then she said a prayer for me, and that was just wonderful! Then she stroked my hair, and told me how beautiful it is (!?), and then she just walked away & none of us could figure out where she went or where she came from! Honestly, I think she was an angel! So, that's where I've been this week...getting back out there!

I'll try to write more in a day or two...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

oops i did it again...

...well, no, actually, I didn't do it...my freakin' scooter was totally to blame!! All I have to say is that I was really happy to meet some of the kindest, most helpful strangers I ever had the good fortune to meet last night when it was dark and I needed help...
...suffice it to say...I left here to go down the street to the store last night about 7:30 pm. Got a few things, headed home about 9. About halfway down the first street, my stupid battery started to run out, until I got down to less than walking speed!
Not very many cars were out, and...oh, what a dolt I was! I forgot my cell phone!! Won't happen again, I'll tellya!! So most of the 4 blocks I went then, I was pushing myself along with my foot. About the 4 blocks on the way home, a truck, and a car pulled up on the other side of the street, and the big guy in the truck got out and walked over to me, and asked what they could do to help! What amazing people there are in this world!! All you have to do is give people a chance to help, and more often than not, they LOVE to help! (very rarely do strangers get irritated by that!)Most people know that you don't want them to do EVERYTHING for you, but they do like to help! Anyway, I said..."Well. do you have a cell phone?". He said 'sure!' I called Tif's #, but, no answer, then the guy driving the car said, 'Well, we'll just take you home, how's that?' Oh, my God, they were SO giving! They brought me home, picked up my scooter, put it in the back of the truck, and by the time we got here, Tif & fiance pulled up and helped get me outta the car, and pushed me up the ramp on my scooter Well, nobody can say I didn't live an exciting life...(you are aware that that's a Chinese threat, aren't you? "May you live an interesting life...") Hmmm...can I put in a simple request for a boring, humdrum life, minus drama?? Or is it too late for that?
I guess it it too late for that, by now it's become a CURSE!!
Okay...outta here...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

HOT Monday!!

Holy CRAP!! NOW we're getting the summer weather! It's around 90 degrees, & humid, and the air quality index REALLY sucks!! I purposely waited till 5 pm yesterday to take off on my scooter, cuz I really don't wanna fall off my scooter and die in front of anyone! Damn! Could you even imagine how embarrassing THAT would be? It's bad enough when you have nothing wrong with you, and you slip on ice....first thing you do is to turn around and see if anyone was looking, right?? And that's from someone who is never self-conscious, just imagine if you got embarrassed by things you do inadvertantly!!

I had meant to ride down to the street with the houses with a lot of underground railroad stuff built in them, I've even heard there are tunnels under the ground from them, and the big old church on the best corner in town, I remember, somebody told me last summer that there's one place that actually has an elevator, for, ummm, Franklin Roosevelt to use when he was here, but so far, that's hearsay from a guy I met walking around my old house, and he was REALLY stoned...so...yeah, I know, I listen to anybody! Listen to everything, believe maybe a third...I do know that there's a Franklin Street right there too...and the Harding home is right across the street, and Harding was elected president in 1921, Franklin Roosevelt in 1932...have no clue what one has to do with the other, but...

I made it 3 blocks before I gave up and came home. It was TOO freakin' hot, even at 5 pm!! I felt the top of my head once I got home, and it felt like my hair was on fire!! I told Bro that today, and he said "that would not have been good!"...I said, 'well, if anybody would've been around, I'dve tossed them my camera, & yelled GET A PIICTURE!!' Spontaneous human combustion! I'd be in the encyclopedia! (not to mention The National Enquirer...). So, no new pix this weekend, but I still have some from last week.

But I've been staying in air conditoning, and drinking TONS of ice water! They said on the news last night that anyone with a 'compromised immune system' should stay in for the next few days. And, no, x, I don't have herpes!! ;-D ! Just plain ol' boring ms...

That picture up there with the water tower at the top...when I was a kid, it was a HUGE deal to ride your bike down that street, with your feet off the pedals!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

July 3...

This is the total type of architecture I LOVE!! A tall house, 3 or 4 stories + basement, cornices along the edges of the roof...good Lord, I've driven my car past this house/museum a million, billion times!! And, never once, did I EVER want to see the inside of it, but I really would love to now!!
It's a museum that used to belong to one of the founders of the town. Bro & I were talking about it when he called, and he said it's still open a few times a week...but I said, "Yeah...but I doubt if they have an elevator...(I'd hate it if it did, anyway!). I just told him that my whole problem is that I love houses that go up, not across!!
This is the same corner with the neat bushes, they must've just put the, ummm, 'pink thing' in last week.
And this is just a family's house...! It's not a museum or anything, this is actually someone's home!! I love to see stuff like this, rather than all the new flimsy-looking little houses! Can you even begin to imagine how much those windows would cost if they needed to be replaced now??

I called all the doctors, home-care nurses, medical suppliers that worked with me last week to tell them THANK YOU for working together to get that going for me!! And it was really neat, my first doctor from 15 years ago that was the one that prescribed them for me...he called me back about a half hour later to just talk, and told me that when I'm out at the dr's in the same building with him, stop in, he hasn't seen me since I quit driving! Bro's company was the ones who built that place too. He won't do houses, he says people are way too picky about their houses, businesses are much better!

All right...I hafta get offa here...I just heard the commercial that says one in five American adults has herpes...ONE IN FIVE!!!! Holy Mother Of God!!

I'm going to Japan...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Sunday night/Monday morning...

Okay, this is the front of the barn in the alley! It does look out of place there, but I'm glad it didn't ever get torn down!
And I just think this is an awesome picture of these trees! It's right down the street from the one up there!
And this used to be (I don't know, maybe it still is) a bed & breakfast, & it's about a mile west from my house! I went at least a mile Friday...I had a lot of fun, met some neat people, saw a cute 18-year old boy with a really grabbable ass...I gotta get out more!!
Anyway, I got some good pictures of neat old houses, lots of really good flowers! Bro called yesterday...he said, "How's the weather there?", and I was like, "You're in Scottsdale, dammit!!!" And actually, our weather here was much better than theirs!! It's only about 80 degrees in the day, and it's been raining around 5 - 8 pm every evening, so it hasn't been totally humid out! Meanwhile, Bro's right outside Phoenix, and it's about 114 degrees there! Bleeaahh! Who cares if he's in an air-conditioned condo with a pool? Do they have any color except brown out there? Sorry, I don't mean to put it down, but...I feel like maybe I got ms so I'd slow my ass down, and take a real look at all the neat stuff here, instead of just wanting to leave this 'boring' town! Of course, he has a motorcycle out there, so it's not like they're just sitting around inside! I know they have a favorite restaurant out there in Cave Creek, called "The Horny Toad", and a few months ago he brought me and Tif t-shirts from there! But, no, I haven't worn it out on my scooter!
Anyway, I did ride about a mile west through town Friday...it was gorgeous and sunny out when I left around 2:30, but I was about 1/2 mile from here when the 'severe thunderstorm or tornado' siren went off!! It wasn't raining or anything, but it sure was getting windy & cloudy! I probably looked like Mrs Gulch (Wizard of Oz bike woman!) coming home!!
I went past an older guy looking out his front door, and he said "you better hurry up, you'll get wet!". I yelled, I'm not worried about that! I'm worried about getting struck by lightning! LOL! But I made it home before it started raining, got my scooter inside the back door, went to the front door, and it was like one solid sheet of rain!! And I heard later on the weather channel that we got 3/4 inch hail in the north part of the county!~!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!