First Date

Gregory Portland, Texas

 

My first official date was to a homecoming football game and the school homecoming dance that followed with Jimmy Albreight.  I was so excited to have my first date.  Since it was homecoming it meant being really dressed up.  I was very tall, skinny young girl at the time so it was hard to find clothes that fit properly.  Mom took me to this little exclusive shop that carried nothing but clothes for girls just my size.  We found this red dress with a scoop neck and sleeves to my elbows, then from my elbows to my wrists there was this white sheer fabric which was quite fashionable at the time.  After buying the dress we bought some white "baby doll" shoes and this cute little purse in white as well to compliment the red dress.

The day of the dance and game finally came so my mother took me to the local salon to have my waist length hair piled onto my head in ringlets.  My mother also took me to Merle Norman to have my makeup done.  I came home to put on my knee length dress, hose, new shoes and accessories.  When it was time for the football game my father drove our station wagon to pick up Jimmy as neither of us drove.  Dad dropped us off at the game which we enthusiastically watched.  After the game, which our school won, the majority of the students, including us, walked over to the school building directly next to the stadium to attend the dance.  

Jimmy and I danced all evening with the exception of one dance.  The one dance I danced with my sisters' boyfriend.  He was kind of funny because he told me to let him know if Jimmy got out of line and he would take care of him.  Ha, ha, ha what he didn't know was Jimmy was a perfect gentleman or I would have taken care of him myself!

The song of the night was "Behind Closed Doors."  After a wonderful time at the dance dad returned to pick us up in that wonderful old station wagon and take Jimmy home.  Since my dad was our driver there was no "walking your date to the door" so Jimmy kissed me on the cheek as he got out of the car and waved goodbye as he walked up to his own door.  With a chuckle from my dad as Jimmy exited our car my first date was over and I had had a wonderful evening.

I have included a photo taken of me the day AFTER homecoming, I wanted to share my hair style.  I loved it and was thankful that my mother saw to it that my hair was done in a special way. 



Church

As a young person I was brought up to believe in God and I did so strongly.  I took many opportunities to attend churches and camps and vacation Bible schools.  We had a preacher that lived across the street from us, the family was very nice and I was friends with some of the children in the very large family.  Because I was not raised in any exclusive religion I attended many local Vacation Bible School sessions through my summers.  I have always loved the Scriptures and the Savior.  y parents always allowed us the freedom to attend churches we were interested in from a very young age, probably because while they believed in God they were not consistently active in any church. 
As a very young child I used to walk to Church in our neighborhood each Sunday.  Sometimes I would walk by myself (you could safely do so back then); sometimes I would walk with my sister Vickie.  I recall the walks very clearly in my mind, I have always loved the beauty of the Earth and those walks were as spiritual and uplifting as the sermons I would hear once I got to the Church I was visiting.

A little heart

Valentines Day was such fun when I was a child in Virginia.  There was a tradition there that I have never seen any where else.  Part of the tradition was making your own Valentine cards specifically for family, friends and neighbors.  The cards were always put in envelopes with the person's name on the outside of the envelopes.
We waited until after dark to deliver our cards.  You would sneak up to the front door of a house, attach the card to the screen door or crack of the door or under the door knocker without making any noise.  Then, you would knock loudly and run for all you were worth.  You were supposed to be quiet while placing the cards and then escape unseen.  You would hide and then watch as the person looked for who had knocked or rang their bell.  Rarely would we manage to hide without giggling.  This same thing was done to you.  It was such fun to catch the giver and to be caught.  Laughter and hugs were spread by those who were caught, plenty of giggles by those who were not.
We handmade cards for our fellow students at school as well.  It was a wonderful tradition and sure made a lot of people happy.

Virginia Beach

 

In the photographs above I am the girl in the foremost foreground in the left photo and the only girl standing up with the white bathing suit cover in the right photo.  The lovely bathing suit I have on is brilliant orange and shocking yellow.  What can I say, I have always loved color. 

In the right photograph, the man sitting in the lawn chair is my father.  He loved to swim and loved to spend time at the beach, my father was always tanned, he is the one that taught my sisters and me to swim.  We are swimming in the ocean at Virginia beach here.  The sand is a brownish sand and the water is a greenish grey.  I have many memories of being on the beaches in Ocean View and Virginia Beach.  I can smell the ocean as I type this.  



Like father like son

 

To the left is my youngest son and to the right is his son.  I showed my grandson his fathers’ photograph this morning and asked him who it was a picture of.  My grandson told me it was a picture of himself.  While it truly does not look exactly like him it does look enough like him that even he thought it was him.  I told him it was his father when he was seven and he started to laugh.  He thought it was cool that he looks so much like his daddy because, “daddy is handsome so I am too.”  I had to laugh at his thought process but yes he is correct.  My grandsons head is shaped like his maternal grandfathers but his face is very much his fathers’ genes.  I have such handsome young men in my family.   

The Artist Project

The art project to the left may seem like a bit of a mess at first glance but it really is not.  It may surprise you to know it was a college art class assignment.  The assignment was for us to draw a self portrait using our foot.  I used my right foot and held the pencil between my big toe and first toe.  The artist pad was laying on the floor in front of me.  It was not easy to do but it was rather fun.  According to our Professor he could tell a true artist by the success or failure of the drawing.  As we drew we could look at what we were drawing but we were not allowed to erase any of the lines we made.  The drawing was to have no corrections.  I don't think it turned out half bad.  My Professor thought this revealed I was a true artist.  Perhaps I have an artists soul because at this point in life I no longer have the artists skill.  The name in the corner says "Marte", a nickname I had in college, just for general information.

A bear story

The picture is of my sister Vickie near our car near the end of our camp set up.  You can see there are still things strapped to the top of the car so we were not completely set up when this picture was taken.  We had a six man tent and behind it you may be able to see the gazebo.  We used to camp nearly every weekend when I was young, or so it seemed to me.  We would take off as a family to new places although this particular weekend we headed to Richmond to camp and have fun visiting my mothers cousin Gloria Watler Wells and her family.  (A few useless notes here:  She had several children and she named all of them beginning with the letter R; Rhonda, Ronnie, Rodney etc.  another useless fact, they all had huge feet, Rhonda the oldest and a girl had size 13 shoes.  I have never seen feet as long as hers). 
Anyway, The park where we camped in Richmond was beautiful, our campsite was at the top of a fairly wooded hill overlooking a lake.  As normal, as soon as we arrived we set about setting up the tent and campsite before doing anything else.  We played, explored, ate and had family time as usual, then it was time to go to bed.  Once inside the tent laying in our sleeping bags we realized just how steep the slope was where we had set our tent up.  We all had to make adjustments to keep our heads higher than our feet.  We wiggled and moved around quietly adjusting so we could have our blood flow safely and properly in our sleep.  When we all settled down again and began to be silent and drift off to sleep all of a sudden we heard outside the tent, grunting, heavy sniffing and grunting.  There was a bear in camp! 
The entire family froze in fear as the bear sniffed around the bottom of the tent.  This was NOT a good thing!  We listened as silently as possible without moving.  Let me tell you that is not easy when your brain is telling you to scream and run!  We did not make any sound that may attract the bear.  We could hear him grunting and munching which meant he had found our food in the containers where we had stored them.  We had no idea how hungry he was or if he would find enough to eat in camp to satisfy his hunger but we were all silently praying his belly got full before he came near the tent again looking for more food.  He ate everything he found including some of the packaging.  We waited silently and finally he left our camp area.  After a reasonable length of time dad had us pack the car quickly and we left in the middle of the night thankful that we had not become bear food and that no one was hurt.    

Ocean View Amusement Park

The photograph is of my mother and I riding a ride at Ocean View Amusement Park (back when there was ONLY black and white photography).  It was located at the end of Granby Street at Ocean View Avenue in Norfolk.  I remember attending the amusement park all my growing up years.  It was always a special family treat.  They had a shed where you could go for all kinds of shows, programs and activities that I and my family attended frequently.  We rode the rides so many times I can't even count.  The old roller coaster was wooden and so dangerous and rickety I remember wondering how it was standing even when I was very young but it always seemed to manage to keep standing even though it was right on the beach with all that damaging salt water and sand. 

The park was completely torn down in 1979.  The destruction of the park was part of a movie.  It was sad to see that part of my history and the history of my home city go but it had become so unsafe and was being required to be leveled.  A few years before it was leveled there was a movie filmed there named "Rollercoaster".  It was winter when it was being filmed and they needed summer dressed extras.  My cousin Julie Grimes and I stood freezing ourselves half to death in shorts to get parts in that film.  The director went down the line of freezing "extras" saying, "you, you, you" and pointing.  He did not point to Julie or I, I am guessing it had to do with our not being able to hide our goose bumps, lol.  I am sure they would have shown on the camera they were so huge.  

That was just one more memory to add to the many memories of the time my family spent at Ocean View Amusement park.  Put it in online, there are plenty of pictures and stuff to see.   

"Go Go boots"

When I was very young Nancy Sanatra was beginning to be all the rage along with her famous "Go go boots".  Go go boots were white mid-calf boots with white loose pom-poms attached at the top center front of the boot.  I wanted a pair of these boots so bad.  I was very young and did not understand money or budgets so I just assumed I would get them because I asked for them.
My father clever man that he was, told me he would get them for me if I could out run him to the end of our block.  My father being generous gave me a full half block lead.  How could I say no?  He was an old man in my estimation (he was about 31 or 32 at the time) and he was 6' 4" and as skinny as a rake.  I accepted his challenge.  We lined up and he hollered on your mark, get set, go.  I took off running for all I was worth. I turned to glance back about halfway to the end of the block and dad had started to run.  It wasn't more than a couple of seconds later that I was being scooped up into my fathers' arms as he completed a very quick run to the end of the block with me in his arms crying while he finished the trip because I had lost.  I never underestimated my father's abilities after that, never took him up on a bet either.  Most importantly, I did not get those boots. 

Spring is springing

As the flowers in my yard begin to sprout up daily I have begun to think of all the yards I have lived in over my life time.  Those in Arizona that consisted of desert sands and those in all the other places that had a variety of grasses and flowers.  We've had banana trees, cacti, roses, lemon trees, pear trees, etc.  In nearly every home we lived in, with the exception of Arizona, my father always planted Marigolds and Pansy's, his two most favorite flowers.  I can smell them in my memory as I type this.  He planted these for himself, he always planted rose bushes in every yard as well even in Arizona, those he planted for my mother.  The roses were his gift to her.  Somehow these flowers made every house we lived in a home to me.  No matter how many places we lived or where they were, when those flowers were planted it seemed like it was home.  The smell of those particular plants still represent home to me.  Isn't it funny how certain smells evoke warm memories of home, just one more reason to love spring.

June bugs

June bug are very common in Virginia.  They have an opalescent green back and their legs are hard and strong enough to pinch you which they always did when they landed on you.  When I lived on Radnor Road, we had a preacher and his children  that lived across the street and they were the most creative bunch of children I have ever known.  They taught me how to tie thread or a very lightweight string around the hind leg of a beetle.  Once you tied the string securely on the hind leg you let the beetle go.  It would fly around in circles on the end of the string or you could take them for a walk and they would follow you like a pet.  Every now and again the string would pull the leg off and the beetle would fly away.  We never got discouraged however, we just trapped another June bug and began again.

Attempted Murder?!

My mother was busy elsewhere in the house with chores and had laid my older sister Vickie and me down for a nap.  Vickie decided to entertain herself instead of napping.  She chose to get my mothers' very red lipstick and "paint" me with it ever so quietly while I was in my crib.  Once I got tired of being "painted" I began to cry and my mother heard me.  My mother came into the bedroom to find me covered in very red marks which appeared to her to be blood.  As she came into the room and saw me she nearly passed out but concern for me prevented her from doing to.  She ran to me and grabbed me up from out of the crib.  Once she had me in her arms she realized the red she had mistaken for blood was indeed her lipstick, she knew immediately who had "painted" me.  It was then that my sister Vickie learned what a good spanking was.
Vickie was not too fond of having to share her parents' affections with me.  The lipstick incident was not a serious one, however, shortly after that she decided I needed to go and tried to smother me with a pillow from her bed.  Thankfully my mother caught her before she accomplished her task.  Vickie tried a few other little murderous plots at the ripe age of two but eventually Vickie learned to tolerate me.

A shotgun baby

My mother told me that my father asked to name me.  He originally wanted to name me Marlene, the same as my mother but my mother convinced him that it would be too confusing to have two Marlene's in the house.  My father settled for the name Marlena Coulier; Marlena being close to my mothers name; my mother was named after the famous actress Marlena Detrich originally so it was staying true to the naming.  My middle name, Coulier, was my fathers mothers middle name.  I love my name and always have, I think it is beautiful and unique.  I kept my full name when I married because I have a part of my mother's name, my grandmother's name, my father's name and my husband's name I love honoring all those people I love. 
My mother had saved all year in order to give my father a Christmas gift he would love in 1956, a new shotgun.   Unfortunately for him my birth cost more than they anticipated and after only having the shotgun for a very short time and having never had the chance to try it out he had to sell it to pay for the cost of my birth.  I am fairly sure he found me worth the sacrifice.  My father loved children and always loved his girls!

Horses

Believe it or not when I was a young teen in Texas I worked on a ranch.  I know, I know, you would never guess.  I worked in the barn to begin with mucking out stalls.  Mucking stalls was not my favorite activity but I did love being around the horses.  I loved talking to the horses and enjoyed their company, they seemed to enjoy mine as well.  I advanced to exercising the horses daily which I loved, I saddled and rode multiple horses every day.  Each horse had it's own personality, some loved to run some to meander others to sort of frolic and play.  After a long time working on the ranch I even got to try helping break a few horses.  I must admit the thrill was something fun but it was frightening at the same time.   I only worked with them after they had been saddle broken and were only grouchy.  I loved my job and was sad when we moved away from the area and had to give up my job. 
I always sought out horses wherever we lived after that.  When we lived in Arizona I had plenty of opportunity to ride.  One funny ride I had was on one crazy horse.  We were visiting a friend on his ranch out in the desert, he had many acres so there was plenty of room to ride.  This particular horse was lazy and our friend warned me that it was  I laughed and told him it was ok I could handle him.  I have had handled many horses in my life so I was so sure I could handle this one.  The horse and I were doing just fine but I could tell he was not happy at having to cooperate.  He decided he was done and headed back toward the main house, I tried to steer him in a different direction and he wasn't going to have it so he went toward a cottonwood tree.  The only trees that grew in the desert area where I lived were cottonwood trees and they are fairly short, even the  large ones.  So, he heads toward this "large" cottonwood and goes right under a branch that just barely clears the height of his head which of course means it will not clear me.  I lean back as far as I can and flatten myself against the saddle and horse.  The rascal!  Not only did he do this once but he did it again!  He was trying to scrape me off his back but he was unsuccessful.  He took off running jumping washes going crazy and doing everything he could to get me off his back.  After a while, after all his antics and after he realized I wasn't going to be swiped off he settled down and we had a nice little ride until I was ready to be done.   

Oops!

After having lived in the middle of the desert in Arizona about 35 miles from the nearest boy my age, attending college was a great new world.  I seemed to have a date for every night.  Then it seemed there wasn't enough time in the week for dating so I started accepting multiple dates for Saturdays and then Fridays.  I did very well at first.  I would be very careful to space them out carefully so that I would have plenty of time to be back at the dorm in between each date and refresh my makeup and change if the activity required it.  All was going well.
I lived in Deseret Towers on the Forth floor, boys were not allowed past the bottom floor which was a foyer type area with ping pong tables, sitting areas and the like.  There were stairs if you chose to use them as well as the elevator.  This particular evening I chose to use the elevator.  I had told my date to meet me at the elevator, that was my usual habit.  I rode the elevator confidently down ready for my date, looking forward to it actually and then the elevator doors opened and there stood TWO young men with there arms crossed over their chests both staring at me as the doors opened.  UH OH.  I double booked and apparently they figured it out, not good so I did the only thing I could think of and hit the close door button on the elevator pad as fast and hard as I could and went back up to my floor.  Briiiiing, my phone rang in my dorm room, they didn't leave.  I had to go back down and apologize.  Much to my surprise after my humble apology both were willing to go out with me, I went out with one immediately and the other rescheduled.  Believe it or not I dated both for a while very happily, I was just VERY careful to be sure an write down every scheduled date.  VERY carefully.    

Wash that Landau right off of your car

While dating Rob when he would go out to sea (he was in the Navy) he would leave his car in my care.  I kind of thought that was a vote of confidence.  I would take care of his car the same as he would.  He washed his car at least once a week, mostly by hand but on occasion he would take it through the car wash on base. 
Rob's car was a 1976 Nova SS.  It was REALLY nice!  It was a red, two door with plaid seats and a landau roof.  In case you don't know what a landau roof is it is where the roof is partially covered in a fabric that looks like leather.  On Robs car it was white and only covered the back 1/4 of the roof.
Rob had been out at sea for six weeks I think it was and I had been driving his car and taking care of it, washing it by hand but he was due in port that day so I decided to spend my time making myself look nice and just take his car through the car wash instead of taking the time to hand wash his car.  I have to admit I looked pretty good if I do say so myself.   Even though I took the car through the carwash I hand dried the car so off I went with just enough time to get the car done and get to the dock in time to watch the ship come in. 
I was happy as a lark as I sailed through the carwash, I was humming as I jumped out of the car and happily grabbed the towels from the trunk.  I began to quickly dry the car when I saw it!  The car wash had pulled up the Landau roof.  The fabric it standing up.  It looked horrible.  I had destroyed my boyfriends car.  I had about 15 minutes before I had to be at the docks so there is nothing I can do about it.  I didn't even know if it would rip it if I drove the car.  I had no idea what to do.  If I went home to get my car it would taken forever to get on base getting through the base checkpoints and I still would have to have driven the car to get there.  How was I going to tell my boyfriend I killed his car?  I decided the only thing I could do was to drive to the base so that's exactly what I did. Thankfully Rob wasn't too upset and it wasn't too hard to fix, a little special glue and it was as good as new. 

April Fools!

April first 1977 I had Robin's car while he was on duty aboard ship.  Duty consisted of being on board ship for 24 hours at a particular duty station in case of war.  The military is always at the ready and his duty rotation was every three days.  Rob would often leave his car with me, he didn't always like leaving it on the dock parking lot.
Often when he had duty I would join him for his evening meal aboard ship and this night was going to be no different.  I headed out to his car which was parked in our driveway to take it to the ship.  His car had the necessary passes to get easily onto the base so it was easiest to take his car verses mine to the ship.  As I began to pull out of our driveway I noticed that for the millionth time our neighbor across the street had parked on the street directly behind our driveway.  They did this so often and it was so annoying.  I carefully pulled awkwardly out of our driveway so as not to hit my neighbors car and drove down the street towards my destination.  I had a strange feeling that I needed to go back because I had hit the car that was parked on the street.  I shook my head because I had felt nothing and heard nothing when backing out.  I thought I had quite the active imagination.  Again the feeling came that I needed to go back because I had hit the car that was parked at the end of the drive way and this time it was stronger.  I decided I would go back because the feeling was so strong.  I went back and there on the driver door was a deep scratch about 12 to 14 inches long.  I could not believe it, I never felt a thing.  I got out and checked it and sure enough I had the dark blue paint on my bumper.  I knocked on my neighbors door and told them what had happened and of course they freaked out not just because it had happened but because the car was only one week old.  I was not happy and told her she did not need to keep parking her car directly behind my driveway because technically that was illegal.  I gave her my insurance information and went on to the ship for my supper with Rob and to let him know what had happened. 
I tried to tell Rob what had happened when I got to the ship but he just kept laughing and saying, "April fools".  I could not convince him it was not a joke.  He could not come off the ship to see the paint on the bumper and I could not convince him.  The more he laughed it made me laugh and I kept telling him I was serious.  The next day when I went to pick him up from the ship I insisted that what I had told him was true.  He went to the bumper and looked and somehow the paint had come off and so there was no evidence.  We had to literally go to my neighbors and she had to tell him that yes in fact I had hit her car in order for him to believe it wasn't an April Fools joke. 
My neighbors car door was repaired and she rarely parked her car directly behind our driveway again.  Rob and I chuckled for years about our April Fools joke that was no joke. 

Sing it Baby

I was reminded in a round about way through a Facebook PM this morning of how as a youth we listened to a lot of music.  Music was a big part of our lives.  We listened to the radio and owned a lot records both 45's and 78's they were eight inch and twelve inch in diameter.  We had record players with needles, yes real needles that would puncture or scratch your fingers or in our cases your records if you weren't careful.  You could even buy a diamond cut needle that was the best and most expensive.  I had one of those coveted needles and boy did it play well.  We had stereos, I didn't get one until I was 15, they were so expensive and it was a treasure.  Your record players could hold one, two or sometimes three records but no more, you had to change them all by hand.  We didn't mind because we loved music.  We had these little record rack that you lined your records up on beside the record player so you would have them in the order you wanted to play them in to make it easier.  My sisters, cousins and even my parents all listened to and even danced to music in our home often.  We would all be dancing in our living room regularly.  My father being the only guy in my family would have to do a lot of dancing.  My favorite dance to watch him do was "the funky chicken" he was all arms and legs.  He was a funny man, so huge dancing "modern" dances.  We did the twist, the mashed potato, the jerk, the swing, and so many others I can't name right this minute. 
One game we played often when we got tired and giddy was to name a song that went with whatever someone said. An example would be:  if my sister asking me to stop doing something I would start singing, "STOP, in the name of love... before you break my heart..."  (yes, that is a song).  or if she said, "If you don't stop I am going to beat the snot out of you" I might sing, "and the beat goes on..." (by Sonny and Cher).  It has just occurred to me that any song I try to sing here will probably not be recognized and therefore lose it's impact.  Suffice it to say that anything anyone could say another of the siblings could come up with a song that would have a phrase that would match it.  Even though my sisters and I are old(er) we can still do it and have done so in the recent past.  It is a fun activity actually, well at least for the creative!  Did you hear the challenge?  Try it sometime, even if it's only in your mind.      

Thief! Thief!

Again, while I was a little child living on Sparrow road my mother used to send me to the "Big Star" grocery store at the end of our block for little things that she needed a  t the last minute.  One day while preparing a meal she had to send me to the store quickly to buy mayonnaise which I bought, but I also stole a pack of gum, just picked it up on the way out of the store.  I did not eat any of it or even open the pack because the guilt of what I had done hit me as soon as I walked out of the store.  It was too late however and I did not know what to do  I went straight home, gave my mother her needed mayonnaise and confessed my theft.  I mean when you have a problem who do you tell?  Your mother right?  She always knows what to do right?  My mother promptly made me turn around and go back to the store with her.  We went straight to the manager, whom we knew well.  He had seen me take the gum but didn't worry because he knew me and my family and knew I would be back momentarily.
The manager gently, smilingly gave me a little lecture and was prepared to send me on my way when my mother stepped in none to gently and made me pay for the pack of gum from my piggy bank.   I thought that was fine because the whole problem was that I wanted gum and didn't have my money with me, now I had the gum and had paid for it properly.  Never underestimate my mother, after I paid for the gum she made me return it.  The manager did not want to take the gum back because I had paid for it but my mother insisted.  I remember that I was so humiliated, I never stole a thing again in my life.  My mother handled it just right because I never wanted to feel like that again. 

As easy as riding a bike

I learned to ride a bike in the front yard of our home on Sparrow Road.  My father took my sister Vickie and I at the same time with our bikes and announced that today was the  day we were going to be learning to ride our bikes.  Vickie and I were quite excited until the painful process began.  Dad would hold the bike upright for us to climb on, then we would peddle with him running behind us holding us upright.  For some inexplicable reason the hedges were like magnets to our bikes, we would head straight across the yard and no matter what we would end up headed straight into them.  With a good amount of time we managed to learn to control the steering better and to stay out of the hedges.  Finally Dad started letting us go at some point in our peddling.  Every time I realized he had let go I would crash but only when I realized he was not longer hanging on.  I began to have many scratches from the hedges and bruises from falling.  We did NOT have training wheels like they put on bikes years later.  I finally gave up that day when I crashed violently into the tree in the front yard which caused the handle bars to forcefully jerk left sending the left handlebar into my thigh taking out a scoop of flesh.  I cried and cried Mom tended to my leg and I swore off bikes for as long as it took for my thigh to heal. Of course that did not last too long as I loved bike riding.  I forced myself to endure the pain of learning and rode bikes for many years. 
As a side note I recently tried out a bike in Target (at age 58) by riding it up and down the isles of the toy and domestics departments.  I laughed and laughed.  It was a frightful experience as I was never sure who was going to come out the end of an isle.  I wasn't sure if it was a safe activity, I was sure it was an immature activity and it was for sure a fun activity but I was just glad I didn't get "caught".

Ride that coaster baby!

My crazy update.  Since I had the flu I was unable to make my appointment with the neurologist.  I did request he call me at home to answer my questions over the phone during my appointment time since really that's all he does in the office anyway.  I suggested that my appointment be a phone and I pay the full rate as if I were in the office, they said, "NO!".  I have to admit I was quite disappointed since I have not yet had a single question answered concerning my "seizures".  They rescheduled my appointment for the "soonest available appointment time", SEPTEMBER 8th!!!  Can you imagine that I am happy?  I asked if I would be able to have an EEG at any time in between since I am unable to drive until I have a "clear" EEG for 6 months.  No, they explained the doctor usually doesn't schedule an EEG until after he has seen you.  Oh really?  REALLY?  Do you REALLY think that is going to fly?  I am going to wait until September to see him then have and EEG that I may or may not pass and either way I will have to wait a minimum of 6 months from then before I can drive.  I-DO-NOT-THINK-SO!   There are other options available!
Life is a roller coaster and I am still riding the ride.

Spring is near!

Oh my goodness, I am alive!  Thank goodness the flu is gone, the freezing cold is gone although replaced by constant rain.  The rain is the signal that Spring is on its way!  We have sprung forward with our clocks so everyone is walking around like zombies in the mornings and laying in bed trying to force ourselves to fall asleep at night. 
We have "planted" the bottom pole to our Purple Martin house in cement in the appropriated place in the yard.  I am super excited that we are putting a Purple Martin house up.  We love to bird watch.  We have a couple of different bird houses up in the yard here and there already that get used ever spring but this is our first Purple Martin house.  Actually its more like a hotel, it will hold 12 nests.  I am thrilled because I understand that they eat mosquitoes I really hope we attract 12 VERY HUNGRY Purple Martins.  One day this week when the rain is not so bad we will raise the remaining 15 feet of pole with the house on it; it's kind of hard to do sinking in the mud though.  So we are praying for one clear day.
We have several feeding stations for our many types of birds in our yard as well, we enjoy watching them and we do get quite a variety especially for being in the "city".  Our constant birds are three variety of Woodpeckers, Chick-a-dees, Hummingbirds, several variety of Finches, Dove, (ugly black birds), Cardnals, Robin, Blue Jay,  Mocking birds and etc.  Too many to remember.  The funny thing to me is the most feisty of all the birds mentioned are the Hummingbirds, they are stinking mean!  I always thought of them as sweet little cute birds, no they are the boxers of the bird world, they fight a lot, they try to hurt one another and are quite greedy. 
The fact that my yard is a riot of beautiful flowering gardens probably helps attract the birds and I will take credit for that.  I planned my gardens years ago and worked hard to make them into what they are.  I have needed to be out in them already this year but the weather has not cooperated at all.  I am hoping to get out Friday or Saturday this week to get them all cleaned up.  I managed to get my Heather cleaned up last weekend so it will grow nicely, it will smother easily under pine straw if you aren't careful (at least here in the south) and I do love my Heather.  Happy coming Springtime!

Influenza

Unfortunately I have the flu.  I hesitate to call it the flu because it is just such a small benign little word and the flu is anything but small and benign.  I will call it “influenza”, its full name from now on.  It deserves that kind of respect.  It can bring a grown person to their knees.  In a matter of just a few hours I felt like I had wrestled a lion and lost.  My joints felt like a bite had been taken from every stinking one of them, heck I couldn’t even comfortably use my hands.  Standing up was a major chore!  MY HEAD, oh my gosh, to touch a hair was painful, holding it up was painful, keeping by eyes open was painful.  My gut, my kidneys nearly died, I don’t have friendly kidneys normally anyway so they really had something to say about having a visit with influenza.  I got up about 5:00am and my Noon I was ready for death.  I knew I was in trouble.  I was babysitting my 3 month old granddaughter and my 4 year old grandson.  The grandson said, “grammy, I love you but you don’t look good”.  No kidding!

Thankfully Both parents safely picked up their children and I have been praying that neither gets the flu ever since.

Remember how I cannot drive right?  I say that nearly every day as it is a source of extreme irritation.  I could not take myself to the doctor so I had to wait for my husband to get off from work so he could drop me off at the doc-in-the-box which he did.  After the visit, swabs up my nose, peeing in a cup and blood being drawn, I was told I had the “flu” that little tiny cute word.  So they gave me Tamiflu for the flu and something for my poor weak kidneys and Zofran for my tummy.

Being as old as I am, and as delirious with the fever as I am when they gave me the Tamiflu I thought of the old “Tammy” movies.  These were such great little sappy movies.  This cute, innocent, cutsy, perky, peppy girly girl was in these movies and Tammy was always “in love”.  The song was, “Tammy, Tammy Tammy’s in love” I can hear it in my head.  Anyway, when they gave me the prescription for the Tamiflu the old Tammy movies came into my head.  I thought about how Tamiflu was probably going to be much like Tammy, dainty, perky, silly and innocent but boy was I wrong.  I took my first dose last night and by this morning my 102 fever had broken and I woke up in a puddle of sweat and my joints felt near normal.  I think I could be in love with Tamiflu.  My fever has gone up and down all day but not back up to 102 and although I am feeling bad I can tell I will live which is more than I can say than yesterday.

By the way I did take the flu shot, I always do.  I have wimpy kidneys and a few other wimpy body parts that wouldn’t appreciate influenza much so I do try to stay away from it.  I haven’t had influenza in so many years I cannot even remember when.  The shots have worked in all the years past, just not this year, but Tamiflu sure does.  Man I love that stuff.