Albino Tree Frog!

We came home the other night to find an albino tree frog sitting on the ledge under our porch light.  The gnats flying all around him, alighting on him off and on, didn't seem to bother him in the least.  I gently prodded him with my finger, just to confirm he was alive. He moved a little bit, but this didn't seem to bother him, either.  So, I got my camera and took a few photos.

He was completely underwhelmed by the whole encounter, but I am quite excited about having him (her?) living somewhere in my garden.

Sunflowers!

Several weeks ago, I bought sunflower seed packets from our local gardening center.  "Giant" sunflowers, which the package said will grow up to 16 feet tall, "Mammoth" - 8-12' tall, and then two varieties that should get to be about 4 feet tall, one red and the other a "Moonflower" - with petals a paler yellow than other sunflowers.  I got some edging that's been on the side of the house since we moved in, and made a flower bed especially for the sunflowers.

Then I took out my garden book and sketched out plant placement based on potential flower height and how the bed is angled toward the lanai.

I planted the seeds in little starter pots and waited for them to sprout. The "Giant" ones sprouted very quickly, the others took a few days longer.

The pictures above were taken on May 4th.  I finally got the poor, neglected, perhaps even abused, seedlings into the ground this afternoon.  I forgot to look at my notebook, with my carefully-planned planting sketch, because I just wanted to get them into the ground before they completely expired.

 

If you zoom in, you can see the twisted, stunted seedlings trying to stand up, now that they have space to stretch their roots and find some stability and balance.  I also gave them plant food and a thorough watering, in an attempt to assuage some of my guilt from having ignored them for so long.  I do feel a little better, and they look like they feel better as well.  I hope so.

Today's Happy Moments (so far)

Mother had her appointment at the USF Alzheimer's Center this morning.  Everything looks fine; pretty much the same as when we did the baseline neuro-cog eval about three years ago.  Perhaps some very minimal decline, but really everything is great.

Afterward, we went to the Village Inn restaurant for lunch, where I ordered the Grown-Up Grilled Cheese (made with tomatoes and bacon).  When it arrived, I was very pleasantly surprised to see their unique way of keeping that nasty pickle juice from getting on my sandwich and making the bread soggy.  It made me very happy.

Then, even better, when I got home, I was able to successfully transfer the photo I took from my cell phone to my computer via some clever chip adapters so I could share with y'all! 

I love living in the future!

Summer Reading Club

When I was in grade school, the school library had special summer hours for students to check out books over the long summer break.  This was wonderful for me because the school was only three blocks from my house, while the city library was over three miles and many busy intersections away.

When the kids were little, we always participated in the local library's summer reading club.  They had weekly story time for the little ones who weren't reading yet, and then different age levels and prizes for the older kids.  We went to the library every week, and after we got home, we would all sit down at the dining table with our books, so I could write down all the titles each of us had checked out.  We then posted it on the fridge, so that the following week, we would know how many and which books we needed to search for so we wouldn't have to pay past-due fines.

I knew our local Oldsmar library had a summer reading club, but it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I realized it included an Adult level!  I got to be in the Summer Reading Club again!!

Yesterday, I got a phone call.  I had won a weekly prize in the Summer Reading Club!  Wooohoooo!  As you can see by the photo above, there is a substantial amount of loot here: a coffee mug with the Reading Club theme on it, several book marks, all of which contain flower seeds that will grow when you plant the bookmark in your flowerbed; a very pretty peacock picture frame, and a little gold butterfly bookmark that doesn't get planted in the ground.  Oh!  And coupons for McDonald's cheeseburgers. 

Sweet.

My Dog, Bella

(This is the text for my 2nd Toastmasters speech, which I will be giving in less than 8 hours.  I should be sleeping, but I have to practice now.)


I mentioned a few weeks ago that I am a storyteller, and today I would like to tell you the story of my dog, Bella.

Bella is a very happy, slightly spoiled, fifty-pound, black lab mutt.  She keeps close watch out the front windows and alerts us to all passing pedestrians, the FedEx guy, the UPS guy, and, of course, the mailman.  She sounds big and fierce and very scary, and we appreciate that.  We believe that were any of us in actual danger, she would rush in to save us.  At least, we hope that she would.  Usually once an intruder/visitor gets past the threshold, she hides behind whomever is handiest.  But we still have hopes.

Bella came into my life several years ago when an on-line friend mentioned the skinny, half-grown pup that was haunting her alleyway. She yearned to play with the children in the backyard, but was so scared of men that she wouldn’t let the dad take the trash out.  I lived alone in a small duplex and had been telling myself that when it was time for me to have a dog, I would know.  When I saw the internet posting, and that the family lived nearby, I decided this must be the sign I had been waiting for.

I picked up dog food, and a couple of doggie bowls at the grocery, and drove over to their house. The mother and I managed to coax/push/pull/carry the nervous, skinny pup into the back of my mini-van.  I took her home, gave her a bath, and then belatedly decided to check the integrity of my back yard fence, as I didn’t want to leave her alone in the house the next day while I was at work, since I had no idea how housetrained she might or might not be.

She was very nervous about being left alone for even a short time, and barked and jumped against the door all the time I was outside.  Bark. Jump. Bark. Jump.  I decided the backyard would probably hold her, and headed back inside, only to find that with all her jumping, she had flipped the deadbolt locked.  It was a French door, so I resigned myself to breaking one of the panes and paying for its replacement.  That’s when I found out that those little windows don’t break nearly as easily as in the movies.  After several unsuccessful attempts, I went to a neighbor’s house and called a locksmith.  Bella was very happy once I was back inside with her.  The locksmith was very happy with his after-hours fee.

Several months later, I moved into an apartment and Bella went to live with my daughter, Janette, where she had a doggie door, a large backyard, and two barking buddies.  It was, indeed, doggie heaven.  And that was where we found out that Bella was not just a barking machine, but a fierce huntress.  Unfortunately for Janette’s peace of mind, this included Bella sharing her trophies with the pack leader, who was, of course, Janette.  She always knew when to expect to find her share of the kill, because Bella would be very excited upon the pack leader’s arrival home, and run back-and-forth, back-and-forth between the front door and wherever the trophy was waiting.  This was usually some lesser portion of a squirrel, and Janette was very glad that the possums and raccoons seemed to be too much trouble for Bella to carry inside.  The animal control number was pinned up on the refrigerator door for when those unfortunate critters needed removal from Bella’s hunting grounds.

Janette taught Bella to sit and patiently wait for doggie treats.  Bella learned on her own to talk in order to be rescued from my granddaughter’s affectionate attentions.  Bella knew that Eva, small as she was, still had higher pack status and so could not be directly corrected.  So, Bella would vocalize her need for rescue when her floor-lounging was interrupted by a toddler using her for a pillow or handy seat.

When I moved to Florida, Bella stayed behind in Texas, but last year she finally made the trip, too.  I worried that she would feel lonely being the only dog, but she seems to think that this is a fine turn of events.  She doesn’t have to eat her food all at once to keep it from going missing later.  She has her own bed that she is never displaced from.  She gets a doggie biscuit every morning.  She never has to jockey for position in the “don’t pet him, pet me” competition.  She has learned how to shake and sit up on her back legs in order to get leather doggie chews.  And she has several big windows across the front of the house to help her monitor all sidewalk trespassers.

She doesn’t seem to miss the doggie door too much, either.  When she wants to go out, she’ll let one of us know.  If her need to go out is dire (official doggie business, bark at encroachers, sit on the lanai and watch the rain), she will use her conversation skills to tell us that it’s very important.  She also has different barks for different applications.  There is the “intruders in adjoining backyards” bark, the “trashmen are taking our stuff away” bark, the “neighborhood doggie gossip update” bark, and then, of course, the “let me in, please” bark.  And when Mother is the only one home, Bella knows to go to the sliding door off the living room to announce herself, because Mother is a bit hard of hearing and can’t hear her from the back of the house.

In the past, Mother has been nervous around larger dogs, but she is quite taken with our Bella.  Bella keeps Mother company during the day, gives a good bluff to passing strangers, and has doubled or tripled Mother’s daily physical activity.  She has also increased my level of activity, as my formerly irregular vacuuming is now a near-daily event in order to keep my home as fur-free as possible, and weekly doggie baths have also been added to my routine.

That’s OK, though, because we love our Bella, and it’s really nice to have a dog around the house again.

Rampage Of Appreciation

This comes from listening to the audio book without having the actual book at hand.

Rampaging Appreciation

I am currently listening to an audio book by Esther and Jerry Hicks.  It is the second half of "Ask and It Is Given" and talks about different processes for improving your mood and mindset, or as they call it, "raising your vibrational rate".

"Rampaging Appreciation" is along the same lines as the age-old sage advice to count your blessings, or the 12-Step Gratitude List.  Abraham (for whom Esther and Jerry purport to speak) advises that this exercise can be done anyplace and anytime for immediate vibrational boosting, but is most effective when done regularly, in writing.

For your enjoyment, amusement, edification - whatever applies - I offer my first session of Rampaging Appreciation, live, from my office in Oldsmar, Florida.

I love my desk.  It is nice and big with plenty of desktop space for my computer and my bright lamp and all the desktop essentials, leaving plenty of room for writing space for my journaling, too.

I love my bright lamp for when it's raining and I need extra light for my brain.

I love my big Goddess coffee mug.  It holds LOTS of coffee.

I love my mug rugs that I got years ago, handcrafted through Martin Luther Homes.

I love my computer and my flat screen, which helps me have extra room on top of my desk.  I love being able to listen to music on it and watch videos and talk to Josh during the day through IM.  I love having all kinds of photos as my desktop background, currently one of my beautiful granddaughter sitting in the middle of a field of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes


I love my curved keyboard.  


I love my little goddess figure holding a crystal sphere in her lap.

I love my computer speaker system that lets me listen in stereo without having to wear headphones.

I being able to check books out from the library so that I can read and have access to a lot more material than if I had to purchase each item.

I love the pull-outs on either side of my desk so I have plenty of room to spread out when I need it.

I love my big bulletin board, where I can pin upcoming events and maps and papers that I don't want to lose (like the marriage license).

I love my blue water bottle that reminds me to drink plenty of water throughout the day.


I love my Rolodex that I found for $2 at the thrift store.  The base, plus the dividers and all the cards, would have cost me about $40 new at the office supply.


I love air conditioning.

I love my office, which is in the back of the house, far enough away from the front living room that I don't have to listen to the sounds of the Encore Western Channel all day. 

I guess that's enough for now.  I'm feeling pretty darned good.  I suggest everyone give this Rampaging Appreciation stuff a try.