Parrots and Other Stuff

Jackie and Jocelyn came over yesterday afternoon. We decided to go out for a late lunch at the Valley House. Hailey always has the grilled cheese sandwich. My stepmom, Marlise, and I used to take Hailey to the Valley House. Hailey was in a high chair back then. Later a booster seat. She used to take the booster seat back to where they kept them as we were leaving. She was so cute. The waitresses always made a fuss over her. We lunched there often. Marlise came by the storage almost every day after my Dad passed away. She was the boss so I could close up the office and go to lunch. After Hailey came we took her with us. Marlise died in the summer of 2000. For a few years we didn’t go back to the Valley House. Then three years ago, I had a birthday party there for Hailey. It was fun.

Elizabeth worked there for a few months after she came out from Colorado. Yesterday was the first time back since Elizabeth quit working there.

After lunch we brought the girls back here. Then Jackie and I drove up to Jackie’s house. She has a young African Grey that she is keeping. Her name is Bug. Jocelyn named her. So Jackie let Bug out of the cage. Bug has not had her wing clipped so she flew around the living room. Jackie’s living room has a very high ceiling. Bug landed on my head. Playing with Bug made me miss Charlie. I had to give Charlie up because of our cats. Charlie got upset and began to bite me. He used to let me pet him and was a very loving bird. Then Fluffy got on the top of his cage and scared the heck out of Charlie. Nothing was the same between Charlie and me after that. Charlie lives back at Jackie’s now. She says he still says things that sound like me. Charlie and I used to talk a lot.

Bug landed on my lead a couple of times. It feIt strange having a parrot walking around on my heard.

Jocelyn got an iPod for Christmas. She couldn’t get it to work. Finally Jackie took it to the Apple store. They checked it out and it seemed all right. The store clerk put a song on it.

Still it wouldn’t work on their computer after they came home. They need a newer version of iTunes and the store had it set for a Mac not a PC with Windows. Jocelyn left the iPod at a neighbors house up the hill so Jackie and I drove up there to get it. Then we came back to my house. I fixed the iPod. It just needed to be reset.

While I was having a good afternoon some scuzz put some very hard core porn photos on my Photoshop board. Yuck! I got rid of them, but one of the members saw them first. I feel bad about that. Seeing porn should be a choice. It shouldn’t be shoved at people that are disgusted by it. I’m going to send bad thoughts to that porn pusher wishing him bad luck, bad times, and a miserable life. Bad Karma for sure!

Clear Skys for a Little While

Woke up to clear skies. Weather says rain tonight and tomorrow. This will be the third storm and since it is supposed to be windy probably the worst. We will just have to wait and see. Was so hoping for clear weather tomorrow.

The desert is in bloom and plan to visit on Monday or Tuesday. The peak of the wildflower season is supposed to last through the first two weeks of March. So am hoping for more than one trip over there. E.R. is going to the auto races in LV next weekend. He is leaving on Wednesday after picking up his brother from the airport. They will stay the night at Barona. Then it is up to LA then to NV and then on to IL for a couple of weeks. So he is not going to be here later for a trip to Borrego.

Yesterday morning I opened the door for my cat Tuffy and he took one look at the rain pouring down and backed up. We lived in Washington state my freshman year of high school...the winter of '55-'56. While we spent many summers up there that was the first winter. I still remember the long rainy weeks. My stepfather at the time was a fireman at Ft. Lewis. He worked 24 and was off 24. My younger sister, Barbara, and I went to school at Fife. Fife was a combined school of elementary, junior, and senior high.

We had first gone up to Milton Washington in the summer of 1954. Bob came down to get us and we drove up the coast route and saw the redwoods. We drove accross the Golden Gate bridge. Bob kept getting lost and it took him awhile to find how to get to it. Bob and Mama were supposed to get married that summer, but they were not getting along. Bob's daughter was there and things were tense. There was a custody hearing and they sent me with Bob and Anita to the court house in Tacoma for it. The judge talked to Anita in his chambers and when he came out he let Anita go with her mother. Bob was upset by that and it meant that he had to pay child support for her too.

My father and stepmother came up to visit us that fall and it was decided that we would come back to California with them. They drove us back in their car. The previous school year we had lived off and on with them. Because my mother was testifying at a family custody and kidnap trial. But that is another story. I graduated from eighth grade at Lakeside. Same school Hailey goes to now. I liked living with my Dad and stepmother. I loved my mother but life was always tense with her. She got angry easily and it was hard.

Mama came for my eighth grade graduation and then we went back on the train to Washington. That trip we went on the ferry across San Francisco Bay to meet the train on the other side. The summer was peaceful when Bob and Mama were not fighting. Weekends when Bob wasn't working, they used to take us to Auburn to stay over at our aunt and uncle's place. Then go out for the evening. Most times they would come back angry. My aunt and uncle fought too. One time we were all sleeping in our cousin's room and heard them arguing. My aunt would say she was going to stand on the train tracks and let a train hit her. Then she slammed doors through the house going out. Pretty soon she slammed the doors coming back and they would yell at each other again. I don't remember how many times they did this before it got quiet. Anyway Mama started letting us stay home while they went to Auburn. We used to hear them come back because they would be arguing. Until we stayed with Daddy and Marlise our bedtime was 7:30 at night. that was much too early but Mama wouldn't change it. Marlise let us stay up later. First eight and then 8:30. Mama wasn't happy about that. When Mama and Bob went out she made us promise to be in bed by 8:30. We used to stay up watching TV and when we heard the car we would run upstairs and pretend to be asleep.

The second day at Fife I had an anxiety attack. I sure didn't know what was happening to me. Someone from the school drove me home and everyone pretended I had the flu. I stayed home the next day and then went back after the weekend. I was fine after that.

My stepfather, Bob Bloomquist, burned himself in a backyard trash fire. This was in the fall of 1955 before Christmas. My mother was cooking fried chicken and it was almost dinner time. Bob came in the house with his shirt all burnt and skin dripping from his arm. Mama didn't drive, but Bob's brother in law was next door. Ralph drove my mother and Bob to the hospital in Auburn. My sister and I waited for them to come home and they didn't. The chicken got cold on the stove. Finally Mama called and told us to go ahead and eat. The chicken was cold and we didn't feel hungry. The next day Barb and I went out to look at where the fire was and saw where Bob had run after he was burned. He ran through the yard until he threw himself down and rolled to put out the fire. He later told us that he had thrown an old paint thinner can into the fire and it had exploded and set his flannel shirt on fire. Back then they didn't sell clothing that was sort of fire protected.

Bob was in the hospital for weeks. Ralph used to drive us over in the evenings to visit Bob at the hospital. Mama didn't work and so money was very tight. I remember the cold storm that was unusual for Western Washington. We had an oil heater in the living room and the pipe under the house froze from water in it. To get things going the pipe had to be heated up. With Bob not there my mother had to crawl under the house and light a rolled up news paper to warm the pipe. She was so scared that she would set the house on fire or blow it up that she made Barb and I stand outside in the back yard in the cold.

We had icicles hanging from the house and a rose bush by the house was covered in them. It was beautiful. Barb and I lived through the days. My Dad sent a small amount of child support and Bob must have gotten some sort of disability. But things were tight. I don't even remember our Christmas. Finally Bob got out of the hospital, but he couldn't pass the physical to go back to work. He had to go in for therapy. Bob and Mama argued a lot.

Bob went to work at Boings for awhile. He still couldn't get back on at Ft. Lewis. Fife had a ninth grade graduation and I wasn't even going to go to it. My teacher drove me home to change into a nice dress and I did go to the graduation. The dress was one I had made in Home Ec class. They were big on all the girls taking Home Ec in high school up there. No family was there. I had it all the year before so it didn't seem important to me. Barb totally missed out on a grade school graduation ceremony.

The next summer wasn't much better. We started school in the fall. That October my Dad and Stepmom flew up to see us. My mother talked them into taking Barb and I back on the plane to San Diego. We had to change planes in LA. Barb and I had put our clothes in two big suitcases. We rolled them up real tight so we could pack everything we had. The next flight was going to Miami with a stop in San Diego. That was back when no flights originated in San Diego. Then they told the San Diego passengers that San Diego was fogged in and that we could pick up our luggage from a cart. Ours wasn't there. My dad got them to stop the Miami flight take off to get our stuff. We came down to San Diego in an old bus. Miserable trip.

We started school at Grossmont. Since I was already in Home Ec they made me stay in it even though at Grossmont it was an elective. The teacher didn't have enough books and she gave me one that belonged to a girl that was moving. Something happened and she came back for awhile. So I had to give the book to her. She moved and took the book. Three years later I had to pay for that book to graduate. The teacher marked me down as having the book. Not fair. I tried to tell them that, but they were not interested and the teacher was not there anymore. My first experience with bureaucracy.

Here I Am Again

Rainy days again. In winter we expect rain. It is good for growing green things...trees and grass and flowers. I am hoping there is a good wildflower season over in the desert this spring and that I get over there to see it. Some flowers are already blooming there. It is all timing. The rain has to be enough and at the right time.

Here everything is green. Our hills are covered in green grass. Lawns are looking shaggy. Tall grass and weeds grow along the roadways. So the rain is needed. It is just that I am used to sunny days and get a little down when it stays gloomy too much.

Hailey had to write some poems for her English class. She needed six poems but only did five. I couldn’t get her to do the last one. It is hard to just sit down and write a poem. Well unless you are a professional poet. What ever that is? I do think she could have done the poem but she just wouldn’t! Stubborn or what! I used to write poems. Over the years I saved some of them. Most went into the trash. Then I put what was left of them on my web pages. I haven’t added to them in years. Just a few poems and that represents over a half century of living! Then Hailey has to write six poems in a couple of weeks.

There are two ways to write a poem. One you just sit down with a pencil and paper and think up something to write about and make yourself do it. If it has to rhyme then you let the rhyming words rhyme in your head and make them into lines that hopefully make some sense. Of course there is more to poetry than rhyming words… or not. There is structure and rhythm.

The other way to write poetry is to let it write itself. The words float around in your head born of some deep feeling that just has to flow out of your brain like water out of a bottle. Some might say wine instead of water. But we are not made of wine, and we are made of water.

So, for ordinary people , writing poetry is not something easily done especially when you are forced to do it. I do think learning to write is important and should be a good positive experience. Everyone has the ability to be creative. But when we force children to be creative we are pushing them too much. They can shut down and start feeling like failures. Creativity should be fun, and exciting. Learning should be fun and exciting. We put so much on our school children it is a wonder we don’t have more problems with them than we do. We are not giving our children a good place to learn or teaching them the skills they need to survive in adult life.

It is three am here and my big black cat is sleeping beside me on the bed. I have this tablet laptop and can write these words with a digital pen. Just like writing a letter. In not a bad typist. I learned to type in school back in the ‘50s. My dad bought me a portable typewriter. My typing speed was never spectacular. I could do sixty words per minute. I also had problems because my little fingers are crooked. I was born with bent little fingers. My mother and her father also had them. Not my children though. Then from my Dad I got slight dyslexia. We could read just fine but writing words and transposing numbers caused us problems. When typing, I have a problem typing i for e and vice versa. My daughter also is slightly dyslexic. She is more so than I am. She can read because we took her to therapy when she was young. My Dad stuttered when he was young and I still do that a little when I’m stressed. My daughter too. She has to sometimes slow herself down. I think the stuttering happens when our brain is thinking faster then we can talk. I used to hate to get called on to talk in class. Most of my teachers were kind enough to not call on me and I didn’t raise my hand either!

Having a typewriter handy all my life was great for when home computers came into daily life. I didn‘t have to take a class in keyboarding when I went back to school in the late 1980s.

So now I’m writing words on my computer screen, and this way a person doesn’t even need to know how to type. I do need half way decent handwriting. This program sort of guesses at the words. I write my name, Dorothy, and sometimes it comes out toothy or slowly or Dowdy or….

Missed the USA 193 Satelite

The news said it would be over head around 7:30 and it was really six thirty. I should have checked the internet. It went right over here and we had a clear sky too. Darn. Today is hazy so hopefully it will clear up and give me another chance to see it. They say it will be shot down sometime next week before it enters our atmosphere.

I've been making Hailey work on her school work to catch up with assignments she didn't turn in. So it is war around here. There is one of those little traveling carnivals in Lakeside. They have one every year and she couldn't go with her friends and that made her mad at me. This is a three day weekend and she is going to get that work done!

There was a shooting in Lakeside the other night. A young man who used to live in Lakeside was back here working for the Carnival. He went to a local bar and then decided to walk to get some food. When he was leaving the fast food place some people in a car shot and killed him. They were not caught. As far as I know there has never been a street shooting like that in Lakeside ever. The victim had warrants so must have made some dealers mad at him. This bad stuff seems to be everywhere. Not that Lakeside was ever the average nice little small town. It was a roudy place in the olden days. Shootings at the Lakeside Hotel. The hotel used to be quite notorious with call girls upstairs, but is now a drug rehab. The Tumbleweed bar was also notorious and was said that pot was sold over the bar. The owners made enough money to open up a better place. The new place is now a Mexican restaurant. The old Tumbleweed is part of the hardware store. Things change.

Some people still get that little back street hotel confused with the original Lakeside Hotel. That was a very large posh place near the lake that people from San Diego used to visit in the late 1800s when the train tracks came to Lakeside. Another story is the original hotel burned down...also not true. The original hotel was torn down in the 1920s or '30s. My great uncle helped with the tearing down. Lakeside is really a beautiful place.

Most of the main street named, Maine Street, has old buildings with the false fronts still visible under the plaster and fixing up that has been done over the years. There is a wonderful white frame church, now owned by the historical society too. Best of all there is a park two blocks from Maine Street with a small lake that is truly special for a small town. A few years back sites around Lakeside and the park were used for filming a TV show called Renegade. I was at the doctor's office one day and the nurses were all talking about seeing Lorenzo Lamas. One scene the show did was a car going into the lake. Though I never saw any of the filming I sure heard all about it.

The old church now the Historical Society.

A view of the lake.

Hailey is going to the carnival with her friends this afternoon. She better get her work finished first though.

Sunshine and Frost

After that middle of the night post...well very early in the morning post...I went back to sleep. Woke up to a blue sky sunny day and frost. My car temp said 41 on the way to Hailey's school. As soon as I got back, got my camera and took some photos of the wood pile...the frost was going fast but still got some frosty pics. The cats had to come out to see what I was doing.

Tuxie standing on a frost covered pallet.

Tuffy acting like a panther in the jungle.
Then it was back inside and some warm oatmeal for breakfast. Yes, I'm still eating oatmeal every morning. If I live as long as my great grandfather...the one who ate oatmeal everyday...I have thirty years ahead of me.

I do some searching on Ancestry.com and last evening found another trace of him in a Washington state ...a census from 1883. His name was Dexter Bryon Clark. I know he was in Arizona in 1880 with his father and half brother. I had thought he went to Washington much later than that. He didn't marry for seven or so more years. He is listed with both his half brother, Ruben, sometimes spelled Reuben, and father, John W Clark, and mother, Susan...though I was always told that was his stepmother and his younger brother's real mother. Susan must have stayed in California while they were in Arizona.

Dexter married a half Native American, named Matilda Greenwood. She died when my grandmother was a baby. Later he married his brother's widow.

Elizabeth called and is going to bring me some coffee when she gets off work. She opens the bar early on Friday mornings, and gets off at 10am.

Pouring Rain

Night before last, I said it was going to rain. The weather report on TV said no rain. We wake up to very light sprinkles and the car radio on the way to Hailey's school said not to worry it would be warm and sunny by afternoon.

By mid morning it was pouring. I went to lunch with Janey. I don't mind driving in the rain and my car was getting a free carwash too. She drove from her house to a little Japanese, Thai, and sushi place in Santee. Same place Jackie and I lunched last week. The food was just as good. Janey and I have been friends since college. Her real name is Marna Jayne. She never let any one call her anything but Janey. Time sure changes our looks darn! Janey has a head of long curly, wavy not fuzzy, curls. Hair that is white now... it used to be red. Was the kind of hair people paid lots of money to the beauty shops to get only her's was natural. She keeps an old drivers license in her wallet, there is a good reason for that, and her old photo made her look like a teenager. Our current license photos are dreadful. So we laughed about that. What else is there to do? When Janey's hair first began to lighten up it turned gold red. Someone once asked her where she bought her wig from.

I used to dye my hair red. I had a streak of white on the top that always looked lighter red. I was asked more than once how I did it. Then they changed the dyes and I couldn't get the color right anymore so I quit dying and let it go natural. In the meantime I went even more silver on top. A lady once asked me how I got my hair to look like that. . . at least she didn't ask me where I got my wig!

After lunch we stopped by Barnes and Noble so I could buy a book on algebra. I need to help Hailey with her math. I bought Algebra for Dummies. There is a Dummies book for everything! It was pouring rain so hard Janey didn't want to leave the store. So we watched the rain a few minutes. Finally we just gave up and took off for the car.

Driving home there was lots of water on the roads. I splashed some pretty good puddles. I remember one rainy day my Dad driving us through puddles while Barbie and I had a great time watching the water splash up from the car tires. My Dad didn't often do stuff like that. Guess that's why I remember it so well.

Elizabeth picked Hailey up from school. We have the counseling appointment in El Cajon Thursdays so Hailey and I were off to El Cajon. The road over there is usually bumper to bumper traffic... pouring rain and the roads have a lot less cars. ... Well unless it is rush hour and then it is totally dangerous out there. Some drivers creep along and others drive like it was sunny day on the race track. On the way up the hill from lunch the car ahead of me came to a dead stop in the road because some old dead palm fronds had fallen on the road.

There is no place like Southern California.

Thinking up these titles is hard to do.

This morning is a little foggy. Here the sun is burning the haze away, but will probably find more fog when I drive Hailey off the hill to school. There is a mouse in my kitchen! It poked its little head around the back of the stove when I was cooking bacon...scared me. I scared it too. Now I am going to have to get rid of it. I have five cats. That means no poison. Glue traps work pretty good as long as I can set them where the cats can't get to them. I hate mouses in the house. This one probably came in in a cat's mouth and got away. We've had live birds, and a live squirrel so it is not too far out to think they would bring in a live mouse. Last spring Tuxie brought in a baby sparrow hawk. We saved it...it was taken to a wild life place in San Diego. The next day we found another baby under a tall palm tree by our driveway...taken off to the same center. I like to think they are big birds flying around the county somewhere.

A few days ago I saved a robbin from Tuxie only to have it fly out of my hands when I got it outside and down into the paws of Stormy. It happened so fast. The robbin flew toward the wall of the house and Stormy jumped straight up paws extended and took the bird in the air, and that was the end. I tried to catch Stormy but she ran off.

On the way down the hill, I told Hailey about the mouse. She said not to tell her that, but I said it was really there. Then she said we should give it a name. Hailey is fourteen now...do kids really ever grow up? Anyway she suggested some names, but I said we should call it Timid. She didn't like that so we settled on Timmy. Then she said what if it is a girl...can't name a girl Timmy. Anyway how do you tell if a mouse is a girl or a boy. She said if they start having lots of baby mouses...I really don't like that idea! So I will be off later to the store for glue traps!

Hailey likes to name the stray cats that come around. They might have real names but we know them as Mystery, Spotty, etc.

Another Beautiful California Day

All the girls from Hailey's party were picked by parents by ten am yesterday, except for Haley T. She stayed until this afternoon. Today was a school holiday so she got to spend one more over night. Yesterday afternoon, Hailey and Haley had a good time on iTunes spending some of Hailey's birthday money on more songs. Haley is a sweet girl. She had a hearing problem as a child so her speech is sometimes difficult to understand. She laughs a lot. She talks a lot too. She goes to a different school than my Hailey so the girls don't see each other that often.

Went to Walmart to shop and there was a clean cut young man outside trying to get signatures for a petition to prevent gay marriages. I Was just reading that California wants to tax same sex couples. Marriage is messy. Some people are lucky and it all works out, but most marriages are miserable. I cannot understand why any one these days would want to get married! Times were different when I was young. I guess I would do it all over again maybe. Then maybe not. Marriage is important for economic security when raising children. That is different now too. Mom's are expected to earn a paycheck and pay support when a marriage with children self destructs.

Marriage is a romantic ideal that is really all about money.

Last night, I woke up about one am. Two cats were taking up the foot of my bed. When I can't sleep I get on the computer or read. I've been checking my board for the spammer. There he was... same spammer or spam bot using a different name... same stupid movie gif saying "Click to see Movie," as if anyone would. Deleted both post and fake member.

I don't worry when I can't sleep, I just find something to do until I get sleepy again. If I have a tired next day I just go to bed early. It all works out. I don't believe in taking sleeping pills.

The two girls were tired out by this afternoon and both took a nap.

Sunday Morning Early

Another Photoshop gradient sky. Bright peach at the horizon to a deep blue green higher up.

Yesterday was a busy day. Hailey had a performance with the Show Choir from her school. The performance was for the Lion's Club and was over in El Cajon. They let us parents in the room to see the performance. We had to stand along the wall.

Then I picked up most of the girls for Hailey's sleepover birthday party. Jennifer is in Show Choir so she came home with us...though we did have to drive her past her house to change and pick up some stuff. Jasmine and Haley T were picked up too. We went through Jack in the Box before coming home. Jocelyn came over and Ashley. I talked to Jackie, Jocelyn's mom for awhile and she said she would be back later and bring me coffee. Figured that by that time I would need it.

The girls were really good. Ashley's little brother and sister were here too. I have a lot of space for kids to run around and so they all had a great time. Also the girls were on the trampoline. Mostly just sitting and talking. I fixed Hailey's iPod to play on my boombox with my iTrip. Some of the other girls brought their iPods so we listened to everyone's favorite songs. The girls arguing over who they like and don't like. E.R. built a fire in my fire pit. Was a Christmas present from my daughter, Elizabeth. So the girls burnt marshmallows. Ashley's little sister, Carley, liked burning those a lot so we kept a good eye on her to keep her safe. Jackie and Jim, Jocelyn's parents, came about dark and we roasted hot dogs. Jackie brought me cinnimon coffee from 7 11. It was a super nice night. Only a little bit cold so we could stay outside and enjoy the evening.

Elizabeth's son Cody stayed too. Cody is a year or so older than the girls. Most of the girls all have crushes on him, except Jasmine...she spent a lot of time texting her boyfriend. Then we had the cake. E.R. had both Hailey's name and Elizabeth's name written on the cake.

Elizabeth's birthday was yesterday. I gave Elizabeth a silver and cubic zerconia neckless from Lenox. It is a pendant of four hearts in a circle and then it pulls apart and mades a line of four hearts. Sterling silver isn't magnetic so there are tiny magnets to keep it together when worn as a pendant. Very pretty.

Candles and singing and then everyone had cake. I think the girls were stuffed. All the girls and Cody talked around the trampoline for awhile. Everyone had a good time. Of course they stayed up late so expect them to sleep in.

Early Morning Spammers

Was up at 4am working on my Photoshopping board. More spam posts from the same source. I activated the authorizing code...so am pretty sure it is a real person and not a spam bot. And I don't think a spam bot would be back so soon...then could be wrong. I read fast and can zap these very quickly. I will just keep doing that until they get tired of it all. We have a little over 20 members so wonder why anyone would take the trouble to even spam us in the first place. Very strange.

The favorite work of this pill pusher is Viagra. I fixed the board so every time that word is used the board will read iamanidiot.

Now am waiting for Hailey to get ready for school. The news says that the way we usually go is blocked with a very bad accident. A big truck hit a power poll. The driver was arrested for being under the influence. So we need to take off a little early.

Maybe be back a little later.