Hello Again

Hello my friends, I am back, if only for awhile. The December Project is not very far ahead, so I thought that maybe I would annoy you people a bit more before I disappear again. Deal?

The biggest news in our neck o' the woods is the many new additions to our farm animal population. Mama Pig popped out a few piggies while back, and ate all but two of them, so, I guess that's an improvement. We have one boar piglet and one sow piglet now, named Porgy and Bess. ( I wanted Rodgers and Hammerstein, but was overruled. C'mon, now, those names were cool!). We have also hatched two chicks, named Lightning and Thunder. I was not at all responsible for those names. Jennifer is fully guilty. I wash my hands of all such cheesiness. We have also obtained two goldfish, because of my giving in to Sarah's puppy dog eyes at the WalMart fish tanks. Sheesh, I need to work on that if I am going to be any sort of firm mother. But she is surprisingly still interested in them. Their names I can't remember, and since Jennifer named them, maybe that's all the better.

It was 39 degrees this morning. Remember when I was going on about how I couldn't wait for the cold, to snuggle up with a blanket and yaddah, yaddah, yaddah? I was thinking 50. Just cold enough to need a blanket. Not five blankets and a pair of itchy wool socks. Yes. I am a wimp. So?

Thankfully the stove was, as Dad puts it, “clickin'” hot. And I was sticking logs in it like wood was going out of style, so we had to open a window. But I did get up and make a very good hot breakfast. (iffn' I do say so myself!) Complete with a cup of my famous coffee that you can float a spoon in. Dad didn't say anything about it, so I figured he didn't mind. Oh yeah, Mom, Jennifer, and Sarah are gone for the week, so I am in charge of all the cooking, cleaning and such. So pray for my Dad, maybe he can put up with my cooking until Mom gets home. I made beans and sour cream cornmeal biscuits for supper, and didn't get any grumbles, so that was good. Robert doused his biscuits in the Miller's honey that we received from Renee' over at Reforming Renee' a few days ago.

The cold weather has kept me huddled inside, so I have read a lot. I read a book called One Second After, by William R. Forstchen, about an EMP going off above the USA. It was interesting, and it made me realize how many people are on so much medication that they would be dangerous without it. People that should be in mental institutions, but instead are doped up, walking the streets. A few days without a pharmacy would really make a dent in our population, and that is a frightening thought. It says something like a quarter of our population is on some king of anti depressants or anti anxiety meds. It also brought to my attention the thousands of elderly patients in assisted living homes that might be abandoned. The staff generally has no real care for a person that they don't know, and the family is sometimes far away. I was saddened by the thought of a large percentage of these elderly that should be being cared for by their children or close kin, who are being cared for by total strangers in a place and around people they are not familiar with. I have now started into the Love Comes Softly book, and am almost through with it. Also, The Mayor Of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. I am doing more reading these days than normal, but I am glad I have been supplied with good reads.

Well, need to start the fire, as the evening has brought a bit of a chill.

Thanks for reading,

Tracy