The Dog Days of Summer!

It's HOT!  That about sums it up in my neck of the woods!!  The dog days of Summer are in full force.  Speaking of dog days, I thought I'd share a few photos of the pack chilling in the backyard.  I use the term "chilling" loosely.

Smokey loves to sun.....but...this is almost torture!

Mac says it's never too hot to chase those annoying squirrels!

And here's my little poser.  He has limited tolerance for the heat....

Unless there's a bone to chew, that is...

Can we go in now?

As for the rest of us.... Trish has a new job that looks really fun and promising.  Connor, morphing into typical teenage behavior, rarely ventures out if his room except to eat, swim (once) and visit a friend..  Sam is opting for indoor activities during this triple-digit heat bubble.  We took a few cute photos of the 5th grade Luau that marks the end of elementary school at Wyatt.

Limbo, Hula Hoops and Snow Cones ushered him out of elementary school and into Summer.  Me, I'm catching up on things I haven't had time for during the school year, and beginning to mark things off my Summer To-Do List.

New Poems

The unbearable heat lately has forced me inside, for the most part.  That being said, the heat has been good for my creative juices.  I've written a few new poems that I thought I'd post.


"August"


This heat
assaults me
like the uninvited
embrace
of a stranger,
his stale breath
pressed
against my cheeks
as I blink back
the assault of an angry sun.

August
straddles
my limbs
and stifles
my soul.
Languid thoughts
drowse
on cushions
Of distant snow angels.

~~~~8/11/10


"Intrusion"


Small
shards
of
discontent
prick
my illusion
of
contentment
and
I
turn away
from
the
sting.

~~8/11/10


 
What if




we could go back
and rewrite
a story
or even a paragraph in time?


What if
we could insert
a word or
conversation
Into a completed chapter?


The days are blank pages
as we journey through them,
one word, sentence,
one scene at a time….

no editing allowed once the ink has dried.


~~~8/10/10

Back in time.....9th or 10th grade.

Kings of the Earth and Odds and Ends

                                                            
                                                            Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch



This is an amazing book; read it!!  I read a review in my Sunday paper last week and was so intrigued I bought it and jumped right in.  It springs from a true story of 3 bothers and is the work of Jon Clinch, the wonderful author whose acclaimed first novel was FINN ( the imagined story of Pap Finn, Huck's dad).  Wow!  I already had several HUGE stacks of to-read books, but this one grabbed me, forced me to buy and start reading. I'm loving it!!

Wed. Mr. I've-Spent-Most-of-My-Life-Of-Six-Months-In-Confinement went in to be clipped and chipped.  He is, once AGAIN, confined for 2 weeks so he will heal correctly.  I just don't remember having to confine my other male pups for any length of time after neutering.  Times have changed, I guess.  To say he's ticked, confused and chomping at the bit is putting it mildly.  Poor fella.  His personality is bound to be warped by all this restraint and his inability to just be a frisky, naughty, normal puppy.  I'm sure he'll make up for lost time when the new prison sentence is up.  He did after the 10 weeks of apres-surgery on his leg.

Today I scratched the need-to-clean-and-purge itch and tackled several fronts.  I tore through the clothes in my closet with a vengeance!  When it comes to clothes, especially my massive tee shirt collection, I'm loathed to let go of anything.  At least once a year I stick my toe into the tee-shirt-purge effort and toss a few.  Today I got serious!  I also ripped through all the DVDs, VHS and game cases in both boys' rooms.  I tossed all the cases that had no corresponding game/movie and organized them neatly.  No, I didn't alphabetize them or anything crazy like that.  I'm hardly THAT OCD!!  LOL!  Besides, the boys would destroy those efforts in one fell swoop!

One major job left....the garage.  The crown jewel of purging this summer!  I had thought the attic would win that title, but I've change my mind.  It's the garage, by far.  I'm already salivating and I can't even begin until late next week.  Bulky trash pickup is a week from next Wed.    I've already added a few additional jobs to the to-do list, however:  clean all the wooden blinds and shutters in the house.  Also, clean all the fan blades in the ceiling fans.

And, on my breaks--read!!  I'm over halfway through KINGS OF THE EARTH.

This and That

It's been a busy week, so far.  Monday I took Bryan to the airport.  We really enjoyed his visit ( first in 2 years), and, considering he's a typical busy teenager and big into sports, I was thrilled I got time with him this summer.  He'll be a senior next year and it will be more difficult to squeeze in time with him!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my niece and her little one.  They just moved about 10 minutes away and I got to see the new digs and meet Mr. Mac for the first time.  They had lived in Southlake, not THAT far away, unless you're short on time to even go down the street, as I have been this past year.  The one time I visited her there she was pregnant with the little man!  The drive time to her old house was at least an hour.

The visit was fun (loved the new home) and Mac began to warm up to me by the time I left.  As you can see by the above photo, he had NOT warmed up when this was snapped just before a sleepy baby with a strange person in the house was put down for a nap!  I was laughing, Sandy was laughing and Mac was screaming bloody murder!!!!  For the next HOUR, Sandy and I tried to send this photo to her dad  to surprise him.  It was a riot!  NOTHING was working for us!  Of course, in the end, we succeeded, over and over and over again.  I lost count of how many times I got the photo on my phone and my email.  Nick probably got it just as many time.  Technology  is great until it's not and gets finicky.

Today I decided to mark another clean-out and clean-up item off my to-do list.  I tackled the front living and dining rooms which have needed purging for over a decade!!!  They are the throw-up (keeping the metaphor alive) rooms for seasonal items that don't get up in the attic or other things that need a 'temporary' resting place. 

Well, it took the better part of the day, but I was delighted to finally have it purged and clean!!  The only  HUGE task I've got on tap for the summer is the garage.  I'm already itching to get at it!  Given that my free monthly pick up for bulky items is the last week of the month, I'm not scratching that itch.....yet.

My Three Amigos

Three amigos or stooges, depending on how the wind is blowing at any given minute.  We have small, taller and tallest!  Number one grandson just keeps on reaching for the sky!!  Soon to be 17 (July 8th), he's 6'4" and growing.  Puberty has been slowly but surely morphing Connor into a looming teenager (Nov).  THIS, I'm not ready for!  He is now my height.  Sam, on the other hand, has been doing more growing out than up this year. 

Last summer was the first summer Bryan didn't have time to come up from San Antonio for a visit.  It's good to have him in the pack this week.  Yesterday we spent the day at Six Flags, braving both the difficult-to-take-anywhere younger two boys, and the weather.  Storms were predicted but held off until we had spent the majority of the day at the park.  Sam, as usual,  was piss-poor the entire time.  By the time we got home he was in timeout and lucky we hadn't thrown him out of the car on the way home.  I rode in the back between Connor and Sam and my sanity was hanging by a thread!

All in all, it's good to have Bryan visit.  Next year he'll graduate from high school and visits will probably be even harder to come by.

Smokin!!!!

                                     


It's HOT!  Just plain H-O-T!!!!!!!  What a brutal start to summer we're having!  Early mornings and just before dark is about all one can stand for any length of time without dragging and wilting.  I feel like I"m moving in slow motion when I'm outside. 

Even the new furkid is not liking the heat of the day.  I have to drag his butt outside to do his biz unless the other 2 pups are headed outside.  Actually, Smokey, the Beagle likes to sun in this heat.  Mac and Spanky either dig in at the door and refuse to go out without a push or find the shade to pant in.

Speaking of Mac, our little explorer, back from his not-so-excellent overnight adventure after escaping through the gate the lawn service left open, he is eaten up with bug bites and miserable.  The heat does NOT help his misery!  What a miracle and relief to have this little lost furkid back in pack again, tho'!!! 

Spanky, on the other hand, has discovered the joys of ice eating and playing.  It's fun to watch him wrangle with the cubes as they melt. 

Not much heat relief on the horizon, I fear.  My 17-year-old grandson Bryan comes to visit on Thurs.  I'm looking forward to that.  First time in 2 years.  A trip to Six Flags is on tap while he's here.....   Someone needs to invent a portable, battery-operated AC unit.  Purse size.  We're sure to be Five Fried heading home from Six Flags.

Time to crank up the snow dreams...

Summer Time and the Livin' is Crazy!!

"Chaos= Christ's hope amid our suffering. Chaotic circumstances are opportunities to hope and trust in Christ." (Zoe Elmore).

I got this quote off a friend's Facebook page.  What a great way to think of the chaos that rules my world!  Put's a whole new and positive spin on the word and the situation.  I like it!

This is, officially, week 2 of my summer vacation.  Last week was  dotted with doctor, vet and installation appointments.  This week started with a less than pleasant screening procedure (finito and good to go for 10 more years!) while tomorrow I round out the necessary-but-not-fun screenings with my annual mammogram.

Several more days this week are dotted with repairmen, pest control and the garage door annual servicing.  Then, hopefully, I'm done with docs for humans, animals and inanimate objects for awhile! 

Since school was out I've been on a cleaning and purging spree.  I actually love to do this whenever I have the time.  The BIG projects on tap this summer are the garage and attic.  Both are challenges and need to be done around the set day when our trash service collects bulky trash such as that which come with the BIG clean-out jobs!  I'm hoping to schedule the attic purge during the time my oldest grandson, 17, comes to visit in July or August. 

The other purging projects consist of cabinets, closets and drawers, all of which can be done in small doses over the summer.  Amazing how satisfying these jobs can be.  I've already made headway in my closet and several cabinets and drawers in the kitchen.  I've also gotten the yard mulched and the container pots planted.  The fruits of these chores are some of the little joys of life. 

I've always liked a certain amount of order and neatness in my surroundings.  These days, when so much daily chaos abounds, cleaning gives me a certain amount of control when I can't really control what goes on around me.

It's so hot right now, there's not much going outside, just to be going outside.  I water plants, feed the birds and sit out with the furkids in the early morning and in the evening.    When I have the choice I run my errands early, too.   Speaking of outside..

about a month ago we found our Beagle Smokey barking at butterfiles buzzing his head.  What an amazing sight!  Dozens of Monarch butterflies were covering one of my dying trees in the side yard.  They were feeding on the oozing sap.  I've never seen so many at one time!  And, they were bugging Smokey who was sunning under the tree.  Last night when I walked out on the patio there was a HUGE, gorgeous butterfly flitting around one of my butterfly-friendly container pots.  Loved it!

Spanky's still enjoying his days as a normal pup again.  He's still getting used to the routine, house and interaction with the other 2 dogs.  He's feeling his oats and is one tired little pup at the end of the day.  As I type he's sprawled across my bed behind me. 

As Summer Winds Down..

I came home from the weekend visit with my sister to a wonderful explosion of violet on my Silver leaf shrubs. A delightful bonus from the unexpected bounty of July rainfall has been the lush green lawn and rich abundance of colorful blooms in my yard and my container gardens. Somehow, I expect we will suffer through a hot, dry August, as payment for the moist and relatively cool July. I'm up early these days and out to hand water the containers hoping to extend the colorful panorama.

Speaking of the weekend visit with my sister.... I had a wonderful couple of days sandwiched between 10 hours in the car with our struggling 9 year old. Five hours over and five hours back with his mouth running NON STOP!! When I say non stop, I mean literally non stop. He whined and cried and begged to stop at every siting of a Golden Arch. He couldn't sleep or do anything but run his mouth. There was no seat in the car that he could get comfortable in. I played musical chairs with him countless times.

Sam started Day Treatment at Children's Hospital in Dallas several days before he left for the weekend trip to Trish's dad and my sister. My sister picks me up at my ex-husband's home and takes me 45 miles away to her home. It's a convenient, brief get-away for my daughter and me. She has time with Dad and I have time with my sister. I also get a bit of a reprieve from Trish and the boys.

Sam has been really struggling this Summer. Actually, he's been struggling most of this past year. His Anxiety disorder has been competing with his ADHD and it's not been pretty! Regulating his meds has been a nightmare!! The aggression had gotten so violent that Day Treatment was the only viable option. School starts in a couple of weeks so there's not much time to spare in getting him squared away to be able to function in school.

Of course, nothing, it seems has been simple this Summer. My daughter is still looking for a job as well as dealing with the Sam issue. Several days before we were to take off for the trip she got a horrible tooth infection that almost resulted in a hospital stay to battle it. She was really miserable with pain and fever. Up until after her visit to the oral surgeon a couple of hours before we left it was iffy as to whether she would be well enough to go.

THEN, to top off the complications, as we were dropping off the 4 furkids at the vet for boarding, our Beagle had a seizure. Just inside the door. Total chaos! My daughter was panicking while Connor and I were herding the other 3 dogs into a separate room to get us away from Smokey. It's a wonder we ever left town, at that point. The vet reassured us that Smokey would be fine so we headed out to pick up Sam at Day Treatment and get on the road.

And so began the ill-fated getaway! I had a great time with my sister; Trish was pretty miserable at her dad's with Sam, her mouth and her concern for Smokey. The trip home was an utter nightmare! Trish was in pain, worried about the dog, exhausted and ready to dump us all on the side of the road. Actually, it was my car, so dumping me wasn't an option. :) Sam was worse than on the ride over. Added to the mouth were tics and involuntary movements of his hands and legs.

Smokey is fine and temporarily on Phenobarb. for the seizures. They were probably a reaction to the stress of being boarded and we were cautioned that he might be better off with a dog sitter next trip. Oh joy! The other 3 pups came home with no signs of PTSD. My two were freshly groomed. They are Shelties and need bathes after being boarded for a few days.

Sam is back in Day Treatment and the new meds he was on are now gone as he had horrible reactions to both! Back to the drawing board on that front. *Sigh* Trish had her final trip to the oral surgeon this morning and found out the infection that nearly did her in was a nasty Staph Infection! Glad she got that nipped before it went out of control!

I'm hobbling around in the final days of my 'boot'. I'm allowed to be out of it for several hours a day as I wean myself off it. Any significant pain and I'm back in it for the rest of the day. When I go back to the doc on the 21 I hope to be out of it totally. That's the game plan, anyway.

Soooooooooooooooo..... it's been a long and rather difficult Summer around here. I say "long", but it also seems like it's been too fleeting now that school is on the horizon. There are going to be some significant transitions when it comes to both boys on the school front. Connor enters middle school and we anticipate the likelihood of initial issues. Hopefully, not, and, if so, short-lived. Sam is due to be given more tests and placed where they think he will do best. Last year was a nightmare with him and the anxiety/ADHD issues. If the meds get straightened out the test results should help put him on a successful path for 4th grade.

I'm hoping for the abundance of sub jobs I was blessed with last school year. Two long-term subs positions in Special Education Depts. kept me busy most of the year.

Thus, August begins on a hopeful note. Let's hope the job horizon is fruitful for both my daughter and myself. I'm praying that Sam will get straightened out and on firmer footing for the coming school term. Connor is stable. I pray that he stays that way and surprises us with a rather smooth transition into the realm of middle school.

The Seed and Song Bird Buffet

Thanks to my friend Marion for her inspiration to grab my camera and head outside.




My container gardens grow wild and free with the additon of a few new inhabitants each Spring. I like container gardens because I can move, rearrange or add to them with ease.

The container garden off my patio is my favorite and forms the pathway to The Seed and Song Bird Buffet. The centerpiece of the Buffet is The Feeding Tree, my wonderful Oak (to be honest, one of my few remaining trees *sigh*). The photo above is of the entrance to the favorite gathering place of my many feathered and furried friends and passing visitors.

Wee people watch over my gardens. Their cottages and castles nestle among the folliage.

Here we have a tiny caretaker's cottage at the entrance to the garden.

Bunnies and butterflies dance around a pot of Mexican Heather. Real butterflies are frequent visitors to my welcoming blooms.

The garden fairies slumber through the heat of the day shaded by a blanket of Heather.

Sun-dappled mushrooms and cranes reside at the edge of the Seed and Song Buffet.

A corner birdbath offers refreshment to the many visitors.

A giant mushroom provides a perch as well as a possible exchange with the resident garden gnome.

The Feeding Tree is at the center of the Seed and Song Bird Buffet. Evening viewing is a feast of delightful entertainment. Squirrels are the frequent uninvited guests, while Jays are rowdy, unruly and in need of the blackbird bouncers.

Sparrows and Wrens are the noisy busy bodies. Their fractious frenzies remind me of troublesome teenagers.

My favorite guests are the Doves. Watching them, day after day, for years is like observing human communal activity. The social....and antisocial interaction is not that different from us.

Last but not least are my last-to-come-last-to-leave visitors: the Cardinals.

I enjoy my songbirds, cooers and my squawkers. I don't mind the occasional crow and delight in the passing ducks, Egrets or wild Parakeet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Seed and Song Bird Buffet is always open.

Reading Mode

An enjoyable activity I've engaged in during the two weeks since the end of school is settle into reading mode. I tend to do this in the summer. On my Shelfari below are 3 books I've just finished and thoroughly enjoyed!

I don't tend to do "light" reading in the summer months. I, rather, gravitate more into the darker reads. Gillian Flynn's two novels are perfect examples of dark and delicious reads! Not for the faint of heart, but worth curling up with for icy shadows! Flynn could be Stephen King's daughter! :)

The other book, by Scott Blackwood, is not as dark, but haunting in a lazy ride down a tangled river of people and time in an Austin suburb. What a wonderful writer, what a way with words this man has!! Loved it!

So, if you're tired of the lighter fare and still want a good way to spend an afternoon or night or two ( WARNING: Flynn's books are of the can't-put-down-until-the-end category!) I recommend any and all three of these page turners!

At the moment I'm half-way through BONEMAN'S DAUGHTERS by Ted Dekker. Again, not for the faint of heart!

Rocky Road

The summer is off to a rocky start. Connor graduated 5th grade a couple of weeks ago. It was a rocky graduation day for him-- sensory overload and overstimulating. He didn't make it through the entire ceremony or after party. He did, however, have a blast the following day, last day of school, at the annual 5th grade Luau.

Trish hasn't found a new job yet and Sam is out of control. VERY out of control. *Sigh* I'm already losing my mind and stressed to the max!

Here's Sam at his end-of-year party. Looking Angelic......

Trish and the boys on Connor's graduation evening. Connor's stress level was already rising...

Connor and his teacher at the Luau, where he's having fun!

My right foot started hurting the last couple of weeks of school. I limped around work every day thinking it would go away at some point. It didn't. In the past week or so the pain has gotten intense and the top of my foot is swollen. I had to stop my daily walks. I still have errands to run and things to do around the house and yard, so, staying off the foot hasn't been an option.

~~~~~~~

Finally I broke down and made an appointment with a foot and ankle clinic for tomorrow morning. I suspect it's a stress fracture. At this point, I just want to have it fixed so that I can move around without every step making me want to scream.

~~~~~~~~~~

*Sigh* I want Trish to find a job, SOON! I want Sam to shape up, or at least, become more manageable. Connor, bless his heart, is just fine, holed up in his room most of the day playing his video games or reading. I envy his ability to just tune out the rest of the world and the chaos around him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I need a break. And, I don't mean my foot.

~~~~~

A poem I wrote several years ago that expresses my current mood. It's about boundaries.

Our boundaries collapse
into each other
like a house of cards,
mother, daughter
under one roof.,
raising two children.
Mother
grandmother
daughter-
the roles bleed into each other.
Control yo-yos,
resentment builds
and spills over
into the landscape.
We scramble to reclaim
and repair the sense of order.

Summertime Blues

Can you tell I'm ready for school to be out for the boys and me next Friday? I am sooooooo ready!!!!!!!

Summertime Blues

Lounging on the patio,
feet up, fan snarling at beads of sweat
that threaten to tickle my scalp,
I watch them:

Sunbaked Siblings sweat
testosterone rivalry as they slip
and slide into the pool
and each other.
Shrill laughter darts in
and around the jumble of gleeful voices.

The fan’s hot breath chases
escaping tendrils of hair. They sting
my cheeks and eyes in retreat.

Panting dogs circle the pool
and me in search of relief, or liquid, or
the simple need to round up the straggly pack.

A purple umbrella shelters me
from the insistent glare of a probing sun
as listless ice cubes sink into the tepid sea
of lemonade. It sweetly beckons a buzzing fly
as I watch through the streamers across my eyes.

And so begin the days of heat and sweat,
the endless hours of water fights, water guns, sticky hands,
stinging flies and eyes. Ushered in by sun-screened boys
a wave of summer joy douses my desire for snowflakes,
dampens my lingering dream of frostbitten breath and tongues of firelight.

My sigh is lost in a gurgle, choked-off by a well-aimed stream of little boy glee.


Pam Patterson © Summer 2003

Of Frogs And Fairy Houses

What's this got to do with anything? Nothing really. Love my frogs and I love the various fairy houses that nestle in my container gardens scattered around the patio and yard. The wee creatures are welcome to come, visit, or move right in. What can I say? My favorite childhood book and flights of my imagination surrounded Peter Pan.

Yesterday was a long, hot, ultimately crispy, but fun day. Trish was off, so we took the boys to Hawaiian Falls, a local water park. We went early, best time to beat the crowds and find a shady spot to park ourselves. As a rule, we leave around 2 when the crowds swell and the sun is unbearable. Yesterday, was an exception.

All Spring Connor, who has anxiety issues and fear of amusement park rides, slides, scary movies, etc., has been saying he's ready to ride the big rides at Six Flags and the giant slides at the water parks. On the way to Hawaiian Falls yesterday Connor was talking about going down the big slides. Trish tried to discourage him from going because he wouldn't be able to turn back mid-slide. I told her I thought we should just let him try if he wanted to.

We hit the park and he was off to the slides! I followed to see how he fared. He not only did it, he LOVED it!! There are 3 or 4 different slides to ride with and without tubes ( single or double). He rode them all! A small victory to some; a HUGE victory for Connor! I was thrilled and proud of his mastery over what had been a huge fear/anxiety for him.

Both boys are part fish. They love the water. I think it's genetic. They swam, rode the slides and ran around the park for hours. We slathered them liberally with sunscreen/block before and during the day. Connor is olive-skinned, but Sam is lily white. Both looked like crispy critters by the time we got home. This DESPITE the many latherings with 50 + sunblock!

Lesson learned. Next time they keep shirts on except when sliding (prohibited). My sunblock was 85; I didn't get burned at all. Trish wanted sun and she got it.

Liberal lathering off and an all evening with chilled Aloe Gel and some ibuprofen eased the discomfort. Watching The Spiderwick Chronicles on DVD capped off the day.

Maybe my fairy houses are occupied after all....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Fairies are invisible and inaudible like angels. But their magic sparkles in nature." ~Lynn Holland