Oh, the games people play

has run across my mind this morning; as usual, spontaneous and no special reason. Still, "Games People Play" was a good song by Joe South. If you don't know about its "inspiration, see the article on the book, "Games People Play" about the book and Eric Berne.

The last few days in south-central Kentucky have been very good. No rain, which we haven't needed, and good for finally getting the rototilling, landscaping and planting done. We reshaped a lot of dirt along the south side of the house, planted it with groundcover plants (primarily daylillies) and started working on the circular area enclosed by our turn-around driveway in the front. It all remains a work-in-progress, but it will get there. We also planted two azaleas in the front of the house where the stump of the nearly-dead Juniper was pulled. Today, we have some more Lily of the Valley to plant on the north, shady side of the house. We want as much area as possible covered in very low-maintenance plants.

I'm very much looking forward to my Palm Sunday long weekend trip to northern Georgia to visit Bill Martin, one of my 50-plus year friends through Scouting.

Well, enough for just now. May you all have a great end of the weekend and a good week next week!

Looking into their eyes I see them running too

is the lyric of the morning. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's a good thought. Maybe it was the online conversation I had with someone from back in my home town. Anyway, here you can find the full lyrics to Jackson Browne's song, "Running on Empty".

I've rather fallen-off my usual posting pattern, but was fairly busy over the weekend. Our daughter, Sarah, was free this weekend, so on Friday I drove up to Brandenburg and picked up her and Serenity - her and Dave's dog. This was the morning after our heaviest snowfall (2 inches) of the entire winter season, but the roads were fine, just a bit damp.

Sarah and Barbara spent the better part of the weekend sewing and doing some shopping.
It was interesting watching the interactions between our 3 cats and the "interloping" dog. One of the cats, Jiggawhat - Rachel's cat - adapted fairly well. Our other two, and older, cats, Pele and Kymball, did NOT enjoy the presence of the dog and remained rather scared through the weekend! We are "dog-sitting" Serenity from late May into July, so it should be interesting.

Daughter Rachel drove Sarah back Serenity back to Brandenburg Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, Rachel and I bought a new Toro lawnmower. Barbara and I had been discussing whether to buy a mower or to hire someone again this year. I got a pretty good deal on the mower, so after having not had to mow a lawn for about 8 years, we'll be doing it again. In that sense, I miss the advantages of living in a condo! Other than the mowing, I rather enjoy working in the yard.

After what seems to be an interminable period of cloudiness and rain, it cleared off yesterday afternoon and today and Wednesday should go into the 70s. I sure hope so as there are rototilling and planting to be done around the landscape, and it's been too wet to do that.

Rachel & Barbara and both back to classes at WKU as of this week after having had last week off for what seems to me to have been a very early Spring Break. I don't recall having week-long breaks when I was at the University of Nebraska years ago. Oh, well.

I'm enjoying - as I usually do - the quiet and solitude of the early morning. I woke up about 4:45, so after catching up here, I'd best get busy on something. "I'd love to stick around but I'm running behind".

I hope you have a good day. I'm planning on it!

Seem to Me a Crime That We Should Age

is the song lyric I've been thinking of today as I've been going through, scanning, and editing many old 35mm slides of family members and many older family friends, many of whom are now passed away, some much too young! The song is "Friends" (click to see the full lyrics) by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Even a few tears rolled down my cheeks as I remembered them, especially my own parents.

It's a rainy day here in Bowling Green, and much cooler than it has been for the past few days. I won't make 50 today and we'd been having 70s! There was even a brief period of some variety of frozen precipitation falling for a short while this morning, but now all the moisture has stopped.

Our trip to Nashville for Barbara's doctor appointment yesterday went off without a hitch. We're hoping the treatment she received alleviates some of the back pain she's been having.

Well, I have a few other things to get done, but wanted to get something posted; I try to post at least every other day.

Do have a good day today, as the song says "I hope the day will be a lighter highway,
For friends are found on every road"

Sunny Monday After a Stormy Night!

Today is beautiful, cooler than yesterday, but last night we had heavy downpours. I don't know how much we got, but it came down very heavily several times! All of the "cases" (whatever their biological name is) have come off the maple tree leaves, and the yard is covered with their debris. I may have to check my gutters, too!

I am finishing up uploading many of my scanned slides to my Fotki site. Barbara made a large meatloaf which we'll cook later and eat probably one-fourth of for our dinner tonight.

This week is "Spring Break" for Western KY University, so Barbara does not have to teach and Rachel doesn't have classes to attend.

Tomorrow Barbara and I are off to one of her doctor appointments in Nashville. We've found that, at least at the times we go, getting around Nashville is not a big problem.

I am going to make a trip around Palm Sunday weekend to go visit a long-time Scouting friend of mine who lives in northern Georgia. It's not that far: perhaps 250 miles, and I'm really looking forward to it. At my - and his age - one should not put off a chance for a reunion!

Do have a great day and week!

Planting Day

I just finished planting a shrub magnolia and a burning bush in the back yard. We intend that there will be "specimen" plants all along behind the landscape timbers that delineate the front part of the back yard (closest to the house) from the upper level at the back. I think it will be aesthetically pleasing and give the yard some "definition". We are potentially going to get some thunderstorms later today, but so far only a few sprinkles. I've watered everything we planted well, but we could use to rain to dissolve the crabgrass preventer & fertilizer I put on earlier this week. We shall see.

The local trash haulers came yesterday (surprising for a Saturday) and finally picked up the pile of sticks and branches which had been out on the front parking for some weeks. I was surprised they took it all, as it was about 15 feet long, by 4 feet wide, by 3 feet tall. I'm glad it's gone! Our neighborhood had been bypassed on the brush pickups since before our big ice storm about a month ago, and there were branches waiting all over the area.

I think I'm going to go take a nice hot shower and take it a bit easier the rest of the day.

I hope the rest of your weekend goes well and that you have a good upcoming week.

Don't Surround Yourself With Yourself

is the lyric playing in my mind this morning. It's from "I've seen all good people" by Yes. The rest of the stanza is: "...Move on back two squares, Send an instant karma to me, Initial it with loving care."

Lots has been written about the meaning of this song (as has also been done for many other songs; just Google the lyrics you like and chances are there's an article somewhere). I think it means don't get too wrapped up in yourself. I found one interesting thought about it by a Rev. Jim Moss.

It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day here in Kentucky! It should be our first 70 plus degree day. The man who did our lawn mowing last season (I'm probably going to buy a mower and do it myself this year) came yesterday with his chain saw and we cut down the sapling trees that had, over some years before we bought this house, taken over the area at the end of the driveway. I enjoy woody areas as much as anyone else, but this was a thicket in the wrong place. Now I'm waiting for another worked to come and haul off the brush, and he's also the one who is going to roto-till the areas we want to work with, either for plantings or our garden. I put fertilizer with crabgrass preventer down yesterday, too. We are still waiting for the city-approved trash service to come and take the large piles of branches that have accumulated on the front parkway since before the big ice storm last month. Oh, well. All in good time, I suppose.

Barbara and I are hoping that daughter Sarah and son-in-law Dave Mitchner will be coming down next weekend from Brandenburg (KY).

I spent a few more hours scanning slides yesterday: good memories, as most of them were from my Boy Scouting days at Camp Cedars in Nebraska.

So, whatever YOU do this day and weekend, initial it with loving care!

Warming Up!

It seems to be warming up a bit more each day, which is fine with me. I don't deceive myself into thinking we won't have any more 20 or 30 degree days, but they'll be fewer. I really want a 60+ day soon so I can spray and kill off all the vegetation in the oval-shaped piece of ground in the center of our turn-around in front of the house: We want to plant groundcovers there and first I need to kill everything (weeds and grass) and then roto-till the soil.

Today Barbara and I are meeting with a local remodeler to hear his ides about remodeling Rachel's bathroom. Seems it's taken forever for him to get the plan ready, which doesn't portend well of his ability to get the job done. Bathfitter, on the other hand, will do it all in one day. Cost may be a big factor, but we'll see.

I have gotten through about half of my 35mm transparencies so far and have most of the scans already uploaded to my Fotki site. The remaining slides are mainly my Scouting pictures, so they'll be just as much fun to go through. I haven't even started on the unprinted negatives or actual prints yet, and there are several boxes of them. I'll be at this for a while.

I hope all goes well for you and yours!