Monday, June 30, 2025

He Ate His Twin!

HE  ATE  HIS  TWIN!

My oldest has 2 different colored eyes - a brown and a green.  When he was born they were both a gray color and as he grew to be a toddler his eyes changed into 2 different colors.  We didn't think too much of it, until...

Until he got married and cell phones and internet were the latest rage and the "information highway" stretched out before us.  His new wife looked it up.

Chimera - Chimerism can occur when a mom is pregnant with twins. If one embryo dies, the other one could possibly absorb its deceased twin's cells.

"In humans, a chimera is a person who has cells from two different sources. Since those cells are from different organisms, it results in two sets of DNA."  

"Not only can Chimera have split faces, but another noticeable characteristic is also their two different eye colors."

Ah, ha, grandma, on my mother's side of the family had a boundary line right down the center of her face!  One side was almost red.  She always wore makeup to make it blend!  It looks like Rusty has inherited chimeraism.

Then came the day he and wife adopted 2 children.

According to Rusty, "This morning, Jayden noticed I have one green eye and one brown.  He told me I need a new one." 

We laughed.

Later, they had more children, and Rusty, though he had pulled the trick on brothers and friends, he now used it on his own kids.  With his black rumpled hair, and curly beard, he'd squint one eye and in a gruff pirate voice declare, "I'm giving you the evil eye."

The mom in me asked, "And which eye is that?"

"Whichever I choose not to squint."  

I laughed.  He grinned.

Then last year, we were all in Home Depot at Christmas time.  They always have a grand display of lighted trees, characters bigger than humans, and blow ups of current Christmas movies players.  Rusty was walking behind his family.  Wife pushing cart with newest baby in the seat.  The little ones checking out the Grinch on wheels, and Nutcracker Suite hanging tree ornaments, and the blow up Minions.  

7 year old Alayna grabs my hand all excited, "GrammyPam, GrammyPam come see!"

"There's a minion that looks like daddy."  And we take off at a half run.

I'm thinking, "What makes him look like daddy?"  Rusty's not wearing coveralls, he's short, he does have a round belly but surely that's not what this little girl is referring to.  So I have to go see, I'm curious now.

"You have to see, GrammyPam.  Don't you know?  It's Bob."

"No, I don't know, I really don't know one minion from another."

"It's Bob," she says, "he's got two different colored eyes!"

And she smacks the inflated belly a good one! 


Now, that's a belly laugh!  

 



Friday, June 27, 2025

NO WAY! Ew! Gross!

   Sigh, my morning plans went out the window.

 
You won't guess why, not in a month of Sundays.....don't read the end, I'll give you time to guess.
 
WRONG!
I'll give you Hint #1, has to with a critter, can you guess?
 
WRONG!
Hint, #2 has to do with a critter outside that I carried inside, it's not the cat.  Wanna guess again?

You might've guessed from that clue, but if you didn't, you're 

WRONG!
It attached itself to me last night.  Remember, nephew mowed yesterday, and as we took a break at the picnic table, he spied a groundhog moseying along looking for worms and grubs and things chucked up from the mowing.  So, grass was fresh, tree branches were bumped around, burrows were hunted, and a trap put in the brushes.
I'm sure you've guessed by now!
 
I woke up with my ear hurting.  I thought I'd slept on it bent and folded.  Then thought I had a white head or pimple.  Kept scratching and it keep hurting in a wider area.  So I angled around, bent my body funny, adjusted 2 mirrors, and voila!  The answer.  I had a contented, I'm-gonna-stay-here, satiated tick!
 
NO WAY!  EW, GROSS!  A TICK!!!!!! 

My whole ear was red and a bit swollen, it had been feasting for awhile. 

I couldn't get it, so I called brother.  He said, "Let me get out my tick kit." 
Tick kit!  Never heard of such a thing, what is a TICK KIT?
 
I got dressed and pulled in his drive to find he'd laid it all out on the hood of his truck!  There laid the container, the tweezers, the single wipe, the papers - he had it all laid out complete with identifying tick pictures.

He plucked, I felt relief, he sanitized the ear, we checked the tick against the pic making sure the head came away, too, and, nope, it's not the kind that causes lyme disease.  Shew! "Another one bit the dust!"  Well....this one bit me!
 
He said, "You have a black spot, let's see."

"Hold your head this way.  Let me have a closer look."  He's wearing his reading glasses.

 "It's nothing.  It's just tick poop."  EW!  GROSS!   DISGUSTING!  Tick poop!  TICK POOP!!!!

He gave it a good couple swipes with the alcohol wipe.  Thank goodness.
 
The next morning my ear swelling in down, the bite is healing, and the bug poop is gone.  I'm sure you wanted to know, you wanted to know that that was all cleared up, didn't you?
 
ROFLMHO  ha, ha, ha, ha, ha........

It was bad enough I had a tick, only had 3 in my life, and not one in over 40 years, it was bad enough I had a tick, but to know he'd been there awhile, long enough to poop?  I'm still totally grossed out  - -

TICK POOP!  EW!



Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Walk The Pair Home




It's a thing.
Every morning I go around the house putting on my shoes.
Then I walk them home.
 
Some mornings it's only one pair.
Some mornings it's 2 or 3 pairs, they're here and they're there.
 
I put them on.
I take them off,
I don't like shoes.
Shoes never fit properly.
I take them off.

For years, starting in 4th grade with a professional, 
I've tried on all kinds of shoes and couldn't be satisfied, I don't like them.
I have a small ankle and a large ball, 
and my toes spread, and my instep is thick. 
I don't like them, not at all.
 So, I kick them off.

When I hit the door from an errand to town
off come the shoes, white, pink, or brown.
At the front door.
At the back door.
Under the table,
resting on the floor,
when reclining for television viewing,
when reading,
in church while everyone's praying
when driving.
I take them off here 
I take them off there, I take them off everywhere.
 
The next morning they're not where I can find them, 
not on the shoe rack for some reason, so, it's hunting season.
I go around the house putting on my shoes
(It would be best if I put them with the rest)
and I walk them home.
 
Tomorrow?   I will walk my shoes again.  Wonder if I'll find two or ten?





Sunday, June 22, 2025

One of Us Is Going Night-Night

"Good Evening!"
 
I'm gonna report tonight because I don't know what the morning will bring.  I'm antsy to get the heck out of dodge!
 
So, yesterday I got out the 0 Turn and made a few laps around the barn.  I had the big idea I was gonna move gravel.

With that in mind I got out the skid steer next and practiced on the drive taking out the strip of green grass down the center.

  "Look!  I can grow here!"

They said I needed to check the oil, the gas, and the left front tire that kept losing air.  That meant I had to learn to operate the air compressor over the phone with Clint.  Durn but if it wouldn't shut off.  Called brother he said, (in the words of Gibbs on NCIS) "Unplug it!"  
 
Duh.  Where was my head.
 
Well, I wasn't so good at using the skid steer to take out the grass.  Kinda made a mess.  Realized my lack of proficiency.  Made a little attempt on the drive to the barn but got no where, so gave up.  No moving gravel for me.
 
Went to Wal-Mart, as you know, met a guy called DentWizard.  I'm sure it was a promotional move, but he got out his goop and a microfiber rag and began taking out all the black streaks, and bugs, and scratches on my new car, with my permission.  I'm ashamed to admit, I ran over a pilon that had a rebar in it.  Once he cleaned it, it didn't look so bad.

I also bought some rodent repellent while there, cuz cat Ruger brought up a squirrel hanging dead in it's mouth, that wasn't dead, just playing possum.  Ruger placed it on the ground and "Oh, no!  It's ALIVE!"  It hopped on 3 legs right into my garage down into a cement block hole!   Durn.
 
Still ansty to get the heck out of dodge, so I went to Aldi for groceries this morning.  
Still ansty so I went to Home Depot to get plywood, 2 x 4, and paper towels to fix shed.  Couldn't hardly get the plywood in my truck, would you believe a littlier-than-me Mexican gal grabbed the other end and helped me load up!!!  She was strong!
 
Once home, had to do all that by myself.  Into the shed it all went.  Grunting and groaning and praying to the Good Lord that nothing gets hurt.
 
Still ansty so I called Book Nook, "Yes, we have those 2 titles in paperback."  Got there and sure enough she'd saved them for me.  I looked up other authors, nothing clicked with me.  So walked an indoor flea market as fast as I could and found toothbrush sets for a quarter each, and found plastic party tablecloths for a quarter each.  So Happy!  Now I can cover up my garage sale.
 
Things needed covering because the mothballs purchased at Wal-Mart were stinking up my house.   I was using 'em to keep out the 3-legged squirrel.  FROM THE GARAGE the smell permeated the house.  How's that possible!?
 
So now I'm hot and tired (remember I didn't go to sleep until 3 a.m.) and don't wanna sleep upstairs in this heat.  Climbed into the attic and got a yellow castored dolly down.  Carried upstairs to John's closet, loaded the window A/C unit onto it, called Ian, "Do I need a 4 x 4 under this unit so it doesn't roll down the roof?"  
 





 
 "Mom, wait until tomorrow, I'll do it."
 
"Nope.  I'm hot.  I've been hot for 3 days.  Besides tomorrow I may take a trip.  I'm antsy.  Just stay on the line and if I scream you'll know I either dropped it on my foot or it slid down the shingles."
 
"Okay, I'll call 911."
 
"Whatever."
 
It's in.  It's grumbly.  It needs cleaned.  But...I'm cool!
 
Blowing on my fingers curved into my palm, "I'm cool!"
 
Since things are going so well, I think I should probably grab my BB gun pistal.  The cat's grooming on the picnic table.   It's up to me.  He can't ran very far, can he, that 3-legged squirrel?
 
Some of us, at least, one of us is going night-night.


Saturday, June 21, 2025

The Comcast Man


                                        
  ---  THE COMCAST MAN  ---

Everyone's aware, you can't help but know, about WOKE and Black Lives Matter, right?  I've never had any problems in that area, more than one of my friends was African-American.   One such beautiful lady, was Allie, she'd preen, she was fixy, and she was in my wedding.

Now this Friday morning, I sat on my couch watching the piney squirrel raid the bird feeder UPSIDE DOWN!  His head was away from me, his body's furry back hung to the ground, and his brown butt was aiming at me and his tail was doing the swish-swish-swish as he feasted on seeds.  I was gonna take him out!

When Antony, the Comcast repair man, came to the door he was tall, he was young, he was friendly and energetic, and he was black.  I never gave it a thought.  He came in, got on his hands and knees to peer under my cabinet at the router with his phone's flashlight, and pulled it out with all the dirt and dust bunnies hanging on. He went through the family room and investigated the t.v. and all the cords and connections, asked questions, I answered.  He sat in my green computer chair swiveling while he contacted his superiors by phone to get qualifiying numbers and digital reconnections and the final okay.

Later his manager was to come and approve his work.

"We're good to go," he said.

He smiled and bid me good bye.

Before I shut the door, I smiled and said, "Thank you very much, I'm glad to have this done."

He walked across the deck and down the stoop.

I stepped to the sliding glass door to bid him a final adieu.

He and his white service truck pulled away.

Then my heart dropped.

I may have made a social blunder, a faux pas.

Fingers drumming lips, cogitating, I worried, "Did he see?  What did Antony make of THAT?"

As I walked to that glass door for a final wave, I spied it.  There next to me on the back of the love seat, in it's beautious steeled glory with its nose facing towards the great outdoors, lay my black BB gun pistol!

  







Friday, June 20, 2025

Donna Kay - 2019 Revisited - God Blest

                    -- Donna Kay--


So, today, in January and NOT December, we took the next to the last Christmas gift, with shamefacedness for being so late, to my cousin Donna Kay.  She's 2 years older than me and she’s been a friend for many years.


When we were younger, my great-aunt, her grandmother, held campouts in the sparse woods beside Donna’s house.  Roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and singing gospel songs around the bonfire sure was fun.


Another time, in our teens, my cousin and her mother and sister said, “Let’s go to Castleton Square.”  I thought, “What’s a Castleton Square?”   Turns out what I once knew as a cornfield had sprouted overnight, in my mind, into a big shopping mall.  


It was complete with a Sears, next to a J. C. Penney’s, and a Hallmark Store, the likes of which I’d never seen before. There I got my first look at a Studio greeting card, tall, and narrow, with a cutting-edge, humorous greeting.  


Example, on the front:  "Congratulations!  It couldn't happen to a nicer person"

Inside quip:  "If it did, it would be me."


Loved it!  It was a new and fun experience.  


Another time, with her mother driving, we all went shopping --- for empty cardboard boxes!  We headed to appliance stores, and big box stores to find a good supply.  The boxes that we found were then taken to church to make walls for a haunted house in the basement.  That haunted house was a blast.


Another new and fun adventure.


Nowadays, my friend is confined to a wheelchair but sports a smile and still shows a good sense of humor with her infectious laughter.  


For years, every Wednesday, we talked on the phone, “Hi!   How are you?”  “How’s your family?”  “Have you heard from Andy?” “Did you enjoy your trip to Vero Beach?”  "Mikkie lives down there, really?" “Wow, you really got quite a sunburn!”  


Andy's my brother who she dearly loves.  She thinks he's especially funny.  And Mikkie is her family's friend that moved to Florida.  


And then we began a pen pal correspondence; snail mail, as they say these days, which eventually evolved into email letters.  It wasn't long before I realized I could communicate with her through this blog.  Her caregivers would check for new blogs and read them to her.


Every Christmas she and I exchanged gifts.  It was a running joke that anything chocolate, like brownies, had to be secreted away because her dad loved them just as much as she did, and sometimes he'd eat more than his share, LOL.


"Brownies?  What brownies?"


But, I have to tell you about the crack shot in the movie theater at the Mounds Mall. No sense in even trying to remember the name of the movie.  She would.  She had the memory of an elephant, ALWAYS.  It’s clean left my mind.  There were several of us teenagers; we were between the ages of 15 to 22, and we helped cousin Donna from her wheelchair into a theater seat.    


In those days, our family couldn’t afford the theater’s popcorn and soda pop, so we brought in our own snacks.  And…in those days soda pop from the grocery store only came in glass bottles.  After we’d selected our seats, rearranged ourselves, and sat down, we began passing out the snacks and drinks.  Keep in mind, this was a no-no.  You did NOT bring in your own refreshments!


And I sure shouldn’t have.


This glass bottle of 16 oz. diet Pepsi was tucked under my left armpit under my coat.  Well ... it slipped.  I couldn’t grab it fast enough.  It slid out from under my coat.  It fell between the seat and the armrest.  It crashed to the floor.  It hit that cement floor like the sound of a shotgun in a metal storage u-lock-it!  KA-BANG!  SHATTER!  SPLAT! 


Liquid and glass, everywhere!


As for us, we sat there stiff as mannequins in double starched clothes, hoping to high heaven no one knew it was us.  We didn't move.  We didn't speak.  And we sure didn't look at each other!   We looked around at other ticket holders instead!  To this day, I don’t know how we didn’t give ourselves away by laughing out loud or how the ushers didn't discern the source, how they didn’t know from where that awful, ringing-from-the rafters sound came!


And, Donna restrained herself, too.  She never cracked a cackle!

Until we got back in the car.  Then it was an eruption of giggles and chatter and laughter!


What a memory!  


Re-telling that story always makes Donna laugh heartily.


Today, some 45 years later, we made a new memory.  Today, darling hubby, three sons, daughter-in-law, and grandbaby went with me to take my cousin Donna her yearly Christmas gift.  We talked with her sister, and her caregiver, and told stories, and shared jokes, and petted their dogs Livvy and Maddy.  


I accepted a gift that Donna had particularly picked out for me -- a beautiful angel playing a harp.  It sets on my night stand and plays "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful".  


Back to Miss Lilly, our granddaughter, who just loves dogs.  She just had to pet them, she said, “Aw, puppy.”  


And when her mother asked, “What does a doggy say?”  2 yr. old Lilly in her baby high-pitched gentle voice answered, “Woof, woof.”  

Before you could shake a stick, Lilly, in her violet-red hooded coat, was out of her daddy’s arms and down on all fours, just like the dogs, face to face, black nose to pink nose sharing doggy kisses, ha, ha, ha.


Donna laughed.  We all laughed.


On this day, the 6th of January, when it’s customary to commemorate the visit of the Magi, to have all Christmas taken care of, we delivered our last gifts to a loved one, cousin and friend, Donna Kay. 




TODAY'S TRIBUTE:  My dear cousin passed away a few days ago, June 11, 2025, just 15 days shy of her 70th birthday.  It's bittersweet.  She was sweet, though her body was weak.  I will miss purposely composing blogs for her to read, visits on her birthday and at Christmas, and, the reliving of precious memories.