Ordinary Days

 I missed posting this on Flag Day, so here it is.

I mostly like the ordinary days of the year, no holidays.

So much less stress and emotion.

 This is why I wear boots.  This is a small corn snake.  It's nonpoisonous.  They do kill rodents.  This is a baby one.  I still don't like snakes.  EWwwwww.

 A mini Flower Garden in a bucket!

 The "escapee".  When I got home one day last week, she was no where to be found.  I looked high and low and even looked with the car in the neighborhood.  After dark, I decided to go back to her kennel, and found her underneath these boards on her deck.  She got under it but couldn't manage to get back out!   I was so happy to see her, and she me.  We made friends again.

 Showing you this deer right outside my pantry window, because she has a belly.  You can't always tell when a female deer is pregnant, because they are so slim, but this is what they look like.  She's next to the cages where my blueberry bushes are.  This area is inundated with deer, and they are not afraid to get in your yard and eat what ya got!

 Here's a mockingbird, chiding me.  I must be close to it's nest.

 Look at this pretty chartreuse green!  The bird nest is probably somewhere in this shrub.

 Peek- a- boo!

 Tangerine Gerbera Daisy

Blooming cactus

 Yes, that's a mole.  Mama Kitty left him on the porch for me.  yay...ewwww.

 A walk in the woods

 The perfect sunset after a rain.  Am I sure I'm not in the great American West somewhere?

This is but a dream, maybe.

My Morning JOE

 SOOOOO SIMPLE!!!

Just THREE ( or four, if you count the crushed ice and cubed ice separately) ingredients

 OOOOO, Look!  How pretty!

Here's the secret to getting that pretty flowing lava look:

Fill cup with cold water, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup, pour in your packet of Starbucks Via Instant Coffee, Stir well to dissolve the instant coffee.   Add more water, about a cup or so.  

THEN put in crushed ice- about a 1/2 to 1 cup of it.

Then top with some cubed ice.  Three or four cubes should do it.   You can still add a little more water (total water, per packet instructions: 2 cups/16 oz.) at

this point, and can stir it a little more if you want to.

NOW, pour the cream on top of the ice.  DO NOT STIR.

The cream will stay mostly at the top for a little while, 

so you can enjoy the "show".

Starbucks Via Instant Iced Coffee

Water 

Crushed ice and regular ice cubes

Liquid Creamer of your choice

~~~

You can find these packages of Via at Starbucks, Walmart, or your

local grocery store.  I like to buy in bulk, as this is my favorite hot weather drink.

Six (6) packets per box, anywhere from around $5.48 to $6.98 USD per box.

World Gone Amuck

Okay, okay.  I wrote this once and it got erased, so maybe it’s just a sign that it was too long.  Or maybe something else....  Here’s  #2...  

Not this child, but about the same size as she....

It started with a Sunday, and leaving to go fishing and a birthday party.  Three little boys and two little girls walking down the road.  Pulling branches INTO the road.  All between 6-8 years old.  Not caring if there were any cars coming or not.  The two girls look at us coming, keep walking in the exact middle of the road, like they were daring us.  We slow way down.  We HONK LOUD.  They move to the side and yeah, the blonde one with white cowboy boots and a dress on, gives us the finger and yells at us.  Stunned, we keep on going, but decide to turn back and lock the dogs in the house.  These same kids have messed with dogs before (made them bark bark bark).  All are under 4 feet tall.  A person not as careful as us, may be speeding and not see them in time, they are so short.  We remove branches from the road on the way back.  Yeah, give me middle fingers.

Not this pickup, but one sorta like it....

 A different day:  A Pickup truck on my a_ _.  I am trying to get over to the left lane to get back on the interstate, and they won’t let me in, so I slow way down to let them pass.  The pickup truck is angry that I am slowing him down too.  I finally get over.  Yeah, middle finger and HOOOONNNNNKKKKK.

You get the idea.......

A neighbor, a woman, who knows DH for years.  Knows “of me” for all those years too, but doesn’t act like she knows who I am.  Drives by when I’m standing in the yard, with her hand up to ear on the drivers side, looking straight ahead.  No way she couldn’t see me standing in the yard with the dog.  I am sending her middle fingers in my mind.

Yeah, not this truck but one like it....

The worst: a large and long semi truck passes me on the RIGHT.  Before a downhill part of the two lane that crosses the Potomac River.  OMG....he passes not only me, but the semi truck BEHIND ME.  He’s in the BERM.  He’s got to be going 70 in a 55, in a no passing zone, before the bridge!!  I am freaking out!!  I’m sure he was giving me the finger because I wasn’t speeding like he was.  But passing on the RIGHT- a huge truck in the berm....OMG.
What a terrible week.

I can’t seem to find the bright side.  I know God loves me and all.  

 ~~~

Excuse the following, but I just can' t help myself.

Then I hear one of the most disheartening phrases,   “You’re not from here are you?”  I’ve lived all over, but I have no accent, so it’s quite obvious I’m not from anywhere, I guess.  It’s a way of making sure you don’t belong in their world, their place, their town.

Not this alien, but that's how they make me feel.
Right back at-cha, people!

On top of all this, one of the cute little kittens in the barn bit me.  Those kittens are soooooo cute.  R i i i i g g h h tttt......

One like this.

You gotta have a certain hardness in your heart these days.  Sensitive souls seem to be getting swallowed up or smashed.  Innocence seems to be dead anymore.  No one respects innocence.  Or kindness, or gentleness, or playing by the rules.  

The world has gone amuck, my friend.

Peace Out.